Northwoods Sporting Journal, July 2021

Patience Hefty Makes Hiram Squirm Pay July 2021

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The Lowly Togue

- V. Paul Reynolds

* Emer ald Ash Bor er * Maine War dens Needed * Tips For Striper s * Camps, Cotta ges & Land For Sale

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July 2021

Northwoods Sporting Journal

Page 3

Fly Fishing: Outlook is Everything

There was a time back in the late 70s and though the 1980s when fly fishing is practically all I did. I traveled widely for it, to Alaska for rainbows and salmon, the high alpine lakes in the Rockies for cutthroats, to the fabled limestone creeks of Pennsylvania for some of the

the most part that Maine fish are relatively easy to entice to the fly. Whether fishing a remote pond at dusk or a stretch of moving water, if you tie on a reasonable facsimile of whatever was hatching,

but fly fishing itself. In magazine articles and books and on television shows if you could stand to read and watch them you had to get technical and “match the hatch” to catch fish. According to the

Fly size and color pattern can be important, but in the vast majority of cases it was where and how a fly was presented that made all the difference. most selective brown trout I’ve even had the displeasure of meeting, to Quebec, and Labrador for giant brook trout and Arctic char and New Brunswick for Atlantic salmon.

I even made a trip to Argentina to see what all the hoopla was about down there. I traveled and fished so much it was a pleasure to get home just to mow the lawn and sip a cold beer on the back porch! You might say I lived to fly fish. I loved every minute of it and have memories that will, no, that have survived a lifetime.

I started out learning how to cast, how to tie various knots, the fine art of presentation, about leaders and tippets, about working a fly in different situations, how to play fish and properly release them and the many other fineries fly fishing entails on Maine waters. It didn’t take long to discover for

Muzzleloading Afield

by Al Raychard, Lyman, ME

The thing about those of us who fish with flies is each and every one has his or her list of favorites.

And then there is generally a list of “must haves,” a selection they won’t hit a stream or pond without.

Some selections are based on time of season, particular waters fished, water color, personal experience, patterns in case the sun is shining or it’s cloudy. The reasons vary and for many the menu list is extensive,

overly extensive, especially when different variations and sizes are considered. In short it is possible to get literally weighed down with flies and to spend a fortune doing in the process.

My whole premise about fly fishing is it should be fun, relaxing. A time of peace and opportunity to reflect and connect with the outdoors. It’s more than simply catching fish, or should be. It’s keeping (Outlook cont. pg 21)

1681 Bennoch Rd, Old Town, ME East Off I-95 Exit 197 Fly fishing should be fun and relaxing... a time to be at peace and reflect.

(Photo by Diane Reynolds) or simply something that looks buggy, make the right cast, presentation and work it just right or on the proper drift chances are better than good you will catch fish.

Regardless of the species fish are generally gluttonous, greedy and aggressive when something buggy is available and will react when there’s an opportunity. Fly size and color pattern can be important, but in the vast majority of cases it was where and how a fly was presented that made all the difference. The particular fly pattern was only secondary.

But then things changed. Not me so much

“pros” it got to the point where you almost had to have a degree in entomology to achieve success. I didn’t totally accept the philosophy then and I still don’t, but it sold whatever they were trying to sell. So long story short, I just kept on doing what I always did.

Reading the water before even wetting a line, selecting a fly or flies I thought would work based on what I saw fish were nailing, or if not what I thought would work based on experience and conditions. I then proceeded to make the best casts and presentations I could. I kept it simple. And I caught fish. Still do.

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On The Cover

Patience Hefty Makes Hiram Squirm Pay - Pg 6 The Lowly Togue - Pg 44 Emerald Ash Borer - Pg 36 Maine Wardens Needed - Pg 49 Tips For Stripers - Pg 28 Spruce Mt. Sasquatch - Pg 24 Camps, Cottages and Land for Sale - Pg 67

Contents

3. Muzzleloading Afield - Al Raychard 6. The Adventures Of Me & Joe - Bob Cram 9. On Point - Paul Fuller 10. “A Hiker’s Life” - Carey Kish 12. The Northwoods Bowhunter - Brian Smith 13. Marsh Island Chronicles - Matthew Dunlap 15. Native Fish Talk - Bob Mallard 16. The Gun Cabinet - John Floyd 17. What’s in Your Woods - Bud Utecht 18. Outdoor Sporting Library - Jeremiah Wood 20. Aroostook Woods & Water - Mike Maynard 22. The Back Shelf - V. Paul Reynolds 24. Spruce Mountain Sasquatch - Robert Spearin 25. Maine Outdoor Adventure - Rich Yvon 26. Ramblings From T8- R9 - Benjamin Rioux 28. Fly Fishing - Joe Bertolaccini 30. South Of The Kennebec - Stu Bristol 31. Post-Script From Pocasset - Josh Reynolds 32. The Buck Hunter - Hal Blood 33. Guns & Ammo: A Guide’s Perspective - Tom Kelly 34. The Maine Woods - Matt LaRoche 36. View From The River - Laurie Chandler 38. The Bird Perch - Karen Holmes 39. Old Tales From The Maine Woods - Steve Pinkham 40. Maine Tails - Jonah Paris 42. On The Prowl - Justin Merrill 43. Northwoods Voyager - Gil Gilpatrick 44. Outdoors In Maine - V. Paul Reynolds 46. Women In Woods - Erin Merrill 46. The Tyer’s Corner - Hugh Kelly 48. New Hampshire Outdoors - Peter St. James 49. Warden’s Words - Game Warden Kale O’Leary 50. Vermont Ramblings - Dennis Jensen 51. Outdoors In Vermont - Gary Moore 52. Green Mountain Report - Bradley Carleton 54. The Trail Rider - Rod Fraser 55. Basics Of Survival - Joe Frazier 56. Northwood Sketchbook - Mark McCollough 57. Best Bassin’ - Bill Decoteau 58. The Singing Maine Guide - Randy Spencer 60. “Just Fishing” - Bob Leeman 63. Cookin’ With New England’s WildCheff - Denny Corriveau 64. Against The Current - Bob Romano 65. Kineo Currents - Suzanne AuClair

Other Great Stories & Information

Northwoods Sporting Journal The Sportin’ Journal

July 2021

The Outdoor Paper For “Maine Folks” The Northwoods Sporting Journal is the Northeast’s most comprehensive and readable monthly outdoor publication. Published at the trailhead of Maine’s sprawling North Woods, the Sporting Journal prides itself on being an independent voice for the region’s outdoor community for more than 28 years. Some of our writers are seasoned and specialized outdoors people who will share their know-how and insights; some of our contributors are simply lifelong outdoor people with interesting stories to tell.

Our aim every month is to capture the essence of Northern New England’s remarkable outdoor heritage by stirring memories, portraying outdoor humor, and sharing experiences and outdoor knowledge.

We also keep our readers up to date with late-breaking outdoor news and hard-hitting editorials about fish and wildlife issues.

Anyone who loves to hunt and fish, or simply finds the Great Outdoors a treasured place, is more than likely to find some special connections amid the pages of the Northwoods Sporting Journal.

www.sportingjournal.com

Main Office Phone: (207) 732-4880 E-mail: info@sportingjournal.com Fax: (207)732-4970

Vol 28 Issue 7 is published monthly by Northwoods Publications, 57 Old County Rd. North, W. Enfield, ME 04493 Periodical Postage Paid at W. Enfield, ME. and additional mailing offices.

The Northwoods Sporting Journal (ISSN#1548-193X) Postmaster: Send address changes to: Northwoods Sporting Journal, PO Box 195, W. Enfield, ME 04493 Northwoods Publishing Group Victor Morin - Susan Morin - Diane Reynolds - V. Paul Reynolds Publishers - Victor Morin Jr. - V. Paul Reynolds Editor - V. Paul Reynolds Director of Marketing - Victor Morin Assistant Editor - Josh Reynolds Associate Editor - Donna Veino Graphic Arts Manager - Gayleen Cummings Subscription/Distribution Manager - Alicia Cram Operations Manager - Annette Boobar Webmaster - V. Paul Reynolds General Sales Manager - Victor Morin Jr. Sales Department; Thomas Schmidt, Paul Hatin & Michael Georgia Regional Advertising Manager - Jim Thorne The Northwoods Sporting Journal invites submissions of photographs and articles about the Maine outdoors.

Manuscripts should be sent with a self-addressed envelope to: NORTHWOODS SPORTING JOURNAL P.O. BOX 195, W. ENFIELD, MAINE 04493 The Northwoods Sporting Journal accepts no responsibility for unsolicited photos or manuscripts. Photos submitted without a stamped, self-addressed envelope will not be returned.

All rights reserved, 2021. Written permission must be obtained from the Northwoods Sporting Journal to reprint any part of this publication. Any errors or omissions in ads or editorial matter will be corrected in the next issue of NWSJ. The views and opinions expressed by our monthly columnists do not necessarily reflect the views of this publication.

Green Mountain Report - Pg 52

By Bradley Carleton

Outdoors In Vermont - Pg 51

By Gary Moore

8. Editorial/Letters 14. Outdoor News 35. Crossword Puzzle 41. Trading Post 45. Carroll’s Corner - Carroll Ware 67. Real Estate

Cover Photo: Sporting Journal Columnist Joe Bertolaccini With A Maine Togue.

Against The Current - Pg 64

By Bob Romano

“Just Fishing” - Pg 60

By Bob Leeman

July 2021

Northwoods Sporting Journal

Page 5

Page 6

Northwoods Sporting Journal

The Adventures of Me and Joe

The Eel Trap

July 2021

by Bob Cram, (Alias T.J. Coongate) Medway, ME

“The way I see it, we can’t lose!” Hiram Squirm thumped a bony hand on Joe’s kitchen table. “Fact is, we stand to make a pile of money, all things considered. So, are you with me?”

“No.” Joe said reasonably.

“Oh why the heck not?” Hiram whined. He shifted his long, lanky frame in the chair. “Eels are going for 12 dollars a pound. When they’re running downstream toward the ocean on their spawning runs, the streams and rivers are full of ‘um. And Rocky Stream ain’t been trapped in years, if ever.

It’ll be plum full of eels in a few more days.”

“They’s a reason why nobody’s trapped Rocky Stream,” Joe said, scowling. “After it leaves the Twin Ponds up on the side of Hedgehog Mountain, it runs through a whole bed of boulders downhill almost to the Little Salt Pork River. It’s only in that last mile that it flattens out where you kin build an eel dam. All the runoff from up above in the early spring will wash out any dam built.”

Hiram smiled smugly.

A thicket of rust colored hair topped his narrow head and large eyes peered from between wide-spread ears.

Eben Ramdown had once noted that Hiram Squirm’s head reminded him of a 1939 Chevy sedan viewed head on. “Them google eyes look like headlights an’ them ears look like them ol’ backward openin’ suicide doors spread wide.”

After that, I could never look at Hiram without the image in my head of Joe Duffer’s old ’39 Chevy coming down Main Street with both back doors wide open.

“Ain’t gonna flood this year,” Hiram said confidently. “The hydro company built a small control dam at the outlet of the lower pond last fall. Won’t be any more big runoffs.”

He grew serious again.

“Look, guys, I need help. If you won’t go in as partners, how about working for wages? I’ll pay good and it won’t take that long.”

“I still don’t see why you need to sell eels, Hiram. You’ve already got more money than you

We stumbled over the low retaining wall and stood behind the upstream wall of the tackle shop, peering around the corner. Unfortunately, Hiram had failed to heed the call. He still stood awestruck at the mayhem taking place on the beach. need.”

Hiram flushed. Everybody knew that he’d inherited a small fortune from his grandfather, who had built a string of small variety stores in southern Maine. Squirm gave me a

If you just can’t get enough of reading our Me & Joe Adventures, check out the All Outdoor section of our new Northwoods Sporting Journal website:www.sportingjournal.com You’ll find an ample supply of Me & Joe stories to keep you checking for a long time.

stubborn look.

“That don’t matter.

Everybody ought to work at something. And they’s a lot of money to be made in eels.”

Joe glanced at me and I nodded. “All right, Hiram,” he said. “We’ll work for wages. When do you want to get started?’

“First thing in the morning,” he said with enthusiasm. “I’ve got all the lumber and beams out at streamside, and we can…”

At that moment somebody pounded on the door.

At Joe’s invitation, the door flew open and Patience Hefty made an entrance.

She was a tall, overweight

woman of indeterminate age, dressed in flowing garments that emphasized, rather than concealed her size. But Patience Hefty had a strong personality, and tended to dominate any group she gathered with.

Now she smiled at the three of us and plunked a sheet of paper onto the table.

“I’ve come to get you men involved in our annual Penguin Plunge for the Loggers Temperance Society.” I glanced at the flyer on the table. It portrayed a beautiful young maiden diving into a pristine pool of water. Joe turned pale.

“You folks ain’t gon(Me & Joe cont. pg 7)

July 2021

Me & Joe (Cont. from pg 6) na jump into the Little Salt Pork River again this spring?”

“We are indeed!” Patience said, her smile widening. “It’s only cold for a minute, and it’s for a good cause.” “ P a t i e n c e , t h e y ’s chunks of ice floatin’ down the river an’ will be for a week or so yet!”

“Don’t be such a wimp! We need some men to round things out. Most of the plungers are women right now. And we need to raise more money.”

“I ain’t so sure it’s a good cause,” Hiram spoke up. “I ain’t much on temperance.”

“It’s for the loggers!”

Patience bristled. “Do you have any idea how much drinking goes on in those logging camps? If it keeps up we’ll have skidder accidents and legs cut off with chainsaws and logging trucks running off the road and men being fed through chipping machines, and who knows what all. It’s a virtual epidemic and we’ve got to stop it now!”

“Now Patience,” Joe said cautiously, “I don’t remember seein’ any loggers staggerin’ around town drunk, or getting in accidents or anything…”

“It’s a crisis hovering right on the horizon!” her voice raised in indignation.

“I might have known the three of you would join with the forces of damnation and make excuses for this debauchery!” She turned, skirts swirling, and stormed toward the door.

“I’ve laid out the challenge, and we’ll just see if any of you are men enough to show up at the public landing next Saturday!” The

Northwoods Sporting Journal whole cabin shook as the door slammed behind her.

I raised an eyebrow.

“Debauchery?”

Joe lifted his coffee cup. “Here’s to it.” The three of us clicked our mugs together and drank solemnly.

For the next week me and Joe worked like dogs, helping Hiram Squirm build his eel dam a few hundred yards upstream from where Rocky Stream joined the river just north of town. It took shape slowly, stretching in a vee across the 30-yard width of the stream. At the downstream point of the vee, a large, square box built of two by sixes formed the holding tank for the eels. Slanted wooden racks, attached to heavy beams propped in the bottoms of the stream, directed the migrating eels toward the middle of the vee, where they slid over the lip of the trap and into the tank. Periodically the captured eels would be netted out of the tank into storage containers for transport to southern markets.

In Hiram’s big freight canoe, me and Joe held the craft steady while Hiram nailed the last of the slanted racks in place.

“There! You guys have done a great job,” he said, smiling at the broad sweep of the dam. “That tank’s gonna be full in no time.”

Joe glanced at the dark clouds hovering over the nearby mountain. “Water’s risin’.”

“Yup,” Hiram agreed as we paddled to shore.

“Coming up good. There’s eels in the box already. The runoff will really get them moving.”

Snow still lay fairly deep in the black deep in the black growth but it was disappearing quickly in

open areas in the limited warmth of early spring. At the shore, Hiram paid us off and, still smiling, arranged for us to help him net out eels in a few days. “I’ll give ‘um till Saturday morning.

Should be about full then.”

As we chugged back into town in Joe’s Jeep I glanced over at him. “Maybe we should have invested in Hiram’s eel operation.

It’s beginning to look like he’s going to make out like a bandit.”

Joe shook his head.

“I don’t know…maybe… but somethin’ still bothers me about it.” As we pulled into his driveway, it started to rain.

By Saturday morning the icy rain was still coming down. The Little Salt Pork River has risen over a foot and tree limbs and other debris were floating down on the current.

Me and Joe lingered

over coffee in the Five & Diner on Main Street, watching the rain beat a tattoo on the window beside our table. Outside, a group of scantily-clad people appeared on the street.

“It looks like the Temperance Society is going through with the Penguin Plunge,” I noted as a dozen women of all ages, interspersed with a few men, trudged down toward the landing, laughing and talking in spite of the rain.

The door opened suddenly and Abner Crossbeam came in, shaking the water from his rain jacket onto the rubber mat. He noticed us sitting by the window and came on over hanging the jacket on the back of a chair. As he sat down Joe poured him a cup of coffee from our pot.

“Ain’t a fit day for man nor beast, Abner,” Joe commented. “Less yur a

Page 7 member of the Temperance Society, that is.”

Abner shuddered.

“Not likely. Fact is, I’d admire to have a little somethin’ to lace this here coffee, if the truth be knowed.”

“What are you doing out on a morning like this?”

I asked. “it’s a long way from your logging camps.”

Abner slurped coffee.

“Fact is, I jest went up to take a look at that little damn the hydro company built at the outlet of Lower Twin Pond last fall.” He shook his head. “I tol’ ‘um at the time it weren’t big enough for when a really good runoff gits goin’. I build a lot of loggin’ dams an’ I know when one’s too small. But they had them one of them hydro engineers and he said it would do fine. A bigger dam costs a lot more money.” He grinned. “Now they’re (Me & Joe cont. pg 11)

Page 8

Northwoods Sporting Journal

July 2021

The Ammo Crisis

Market volatility is not leaving the sporting community untouched. The stock market may be soaring but so is the price of ammunition – not to mention gasoline, two-by-fours and chicken.

When it comes to ammunition, whether for handguns, long guns or shot guns, supply and demand rule.

One ammo maker told the American Rifleman magazine: “... ever since Joe Biden was named the presumed presidential-election winner, we have seen a reaction in the marketplace, and it hasn’t subsided at all. So, through all that, we’ve been producing ammunition flat-out, and yet our retailers are not able to maintain any inventory to speak of.”

Demand has been strong across the board—any type or caliber of handgun ammo; small rifle, big rifle, hunting rifle; even rimfire— all of it really picked up. When contacted, a spokesman for the Winchester and Browning ammunition brands simply commented: “Like many manufacturers in the shootingsports industry, we are experiencing extremely high demand for our products. We are continu-

Doe Numbers: Some Ideas To the Editor: Don’t know why this problem of killing does still persists. Surely our Maine deer experts have investigated other states with similar problems….. but maybe not.

Anyway, I have lived in several states with too many does and each one has found a solution…most recently on the eastern shore of Maryland in 1990.

There they issued permits to land owners, year round, to kill them – it worked.

People love to eat them so issue the people DOE permits, not any deer permits!

Now I live in Downeast Maine. Many families here subsist on deer meat and other wild

ing to manufacture and ship our high-quality products on a daily basis.”

The demand equation for ammo is being driven by a number of factors: record number of gun buyers, and outright hoarding, to name a couple. And, of course, Covid closed down a number of ammunition manufacturers. Experts say it will take years to normalize the supply chain.

The ammo supply crisis, coupled with the anticipated severe supply shortage of copper, serves to overshadow or negate this no-lead bullet entreaty from the website of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife: “Copper bullet prices continue to decline every year, even as performance improves.

Given that a hunter will typically use two or less bullets per year on large game, and a few bullets to sight in the firearm, the purchase of a box of copper bullets can last multiple seasons.

On average, a box of lead bullets runs $20, where a box of copper bullets runs only a few dollars more. The cost difference goes away completely when using premium ammunition.”

Good luck with that. You can’t even find

game. They would gladly fill doe tags and travel to do it.

It is also time to move beyond the “traditional” deer hunt methods and allow baiting. Encourage young hunters to bait for doe/buck and Maine’s problem of too many does goes away quickly. Many other good reasons to allow baiting, such as old guys could now have a chance to hunt them (as I recall the population in Maine is old), more young people could hunt them, and you listed another in your recent Journal. Seems like biologists feel that if baiting is allowed the deer population will suffer. I believe the opposite. And forget emotional hang ups of fair chase. If you want fair- chase only areas, make

the Maine north woods fair chase only. That would help sporting camps and associated businesses…. but leave southern half of Maine open to baiting.

As the climate continues to warm, Maine will continue to face additional issues with parasites and diseases of deer. Populations of other mammals, birds and fish will also experience significant change and demand futuristic management practices. The time is now to implement innovative deer management practices that fit the situation on the ground today and in the future.

Our state level IF&W managers/leaders are not creative and need to change their approach to management techniques – to meet future wildlife manage-

lead bullets to purchase for conventional firearms, let alone copper ones. And just try to find a box of tarditional rifle ammunition for a deer rifle. “Consumer frustration is rampant,” reports the American Rifleman magazine.

When will it all end, the ammo shortage?

Given the supply chain disruption, as well as other shortages in ammunition components and the public rush to purchase firearms, there are few reasons to expect the supply of ammunition to increase. Continued shortfalls are being predicted by those in the know.

When you think about it, an ammo supply crisis is a kind of de facto form of gun control.

The double irony is that the more the Biden Administration jawbones about gun control and defunding police the more people rush to buy guns. And the unprecedented spike in gun sales makes it tougher and tougher to find ammunition for these new gun purchases.

As one ammo maker said, “Ammunition is the new toilet paper!”

- VPR

ment challenges including doe management. One example is the recent change to moose management in zone 4 and the cow reduction to “control” ticks.

Even this program was started late but at least it has started.

Denny Shellabarger Steuben

Posting is the Problem To the Editor: Just a note regarding V. Paul Reynolds article on doe harvests that I recently came upon while online. The article says the ongoing small doe harvest results from hunters holding out for big bucks. In my experience nothing could be further from the truth.

Average Maine hunters have never been trophy hunters. Maine deer herd numbers have always been low, partly because we are at the northern fringe of white tail range where weather conditions are severe and good habitat is limited. Truth is, Maine hunters are typically meat hunters and the real (biggest) reason for falling or marginal annual harvests is a simple lack of hunting access, which not only limits average hunter success in the overall but creates unfair advantages for a small cadre of hunting landowners...via posting of private land.

Posting has reached historic levels and is still on the rise. Public land is (relatively speaking) (Letters cont. pg 21)

July 2021

Northwoods Sporting Journal

Fair Chase: True Hunting

Be worthy of your game. A statement from George Bird Evans, a wellknown writer and setter breeder.

Fair chase of your prey, in my mind is being worthy of your game.

However, for many years and many generations,

been shot by road hunters.

This past fall, we went to the north country the end of the second week. We were told by one of our friends, a long-time and native resident of a small Maine town, that there were local people that already had 100 birds in their freezer.

handgun (shoots 410 shot shells) to shoot road birds from the window of their truck.

For my wife and I, it’s all about dog work. There is nothing more exciting in the bird hunting world, than shooting on the wing a ruffed grouse over good dog work. It’s the ultimate experience in upland hunting. When you sit at the dining room table to enjoy the delicious meat of the

Page 9

On Point

by Paul Fuller, Durham, N.H. in those ditches and grouse love clover. Last year we met a father and son, local residents, hunting exactly this way. They had each shot a bird, on the wing, from flushes along the road. We were happy to see this.

There is an encourag-

big game, I like the Boone and Crockett Club’s description of fair chase. Fair chase, as defined by the Boone and Crockett Club is the ethical, sportsmanlike pursuit and taking of any free-ranging wild, native North American game animal in a manner that

When bringing up fair chase, I often hear the “if it’s legal” argument. Legal and ethical clash here.

Author with an on-the-wing grouse shot in front of good dog work.

(Photo by Susan Fuller) our beloved ruffed grouse, This type of slaughter, known as the king of game greatly reduces the opbirds, has been subjected to portunity for eager hunters a total lack of fair chase. using fair chase to harvest It’s called road shooting or game. The old saying that road potting. Note that the for every bird on the road word hunting is not part of there are 100 in the woods the description. It’s shoot- is pure b.s. ing…not hunting. True When bringing up fair hunting is skillfully pitting chase, I often hear the “if your skills against those of it’s legal” argument. Legal your prey. and ethical clash here.

Road shooting is also And, road shooting robbing the ethical hunter is not always legal. My of opportunities to harvest wife and I have witnessed grouse using fair chase vehicles suddenly stopping methods. A forest worker on the woods road and told me several years ago shooting out the window. that if you come to the big In fact, we were told last woods after the first week, a year that one person was good 80% of the birds have arrested for using a Judge

ruffed grouse, the memory of how you harvested that bird will be told to the other folks at the table. It’s an exciting story.

However, you can still ethically hunt ruffed grouse without a dog. Every year we discover hunters simply walking the logging roads while looking for a flush from the ditch along the road. There is often clover

ing sign. Younger people we’ve met over the past few years appear to be more interested in fair chase. I’m not sure if it’s because fair chase is being taught in hunter safety courses or it’s just an ethical attitude these youngsters have. No matter what, it’s a good sign for the future.

Although the ruffed grouse is not considered

does not give the hunter an improper advantage over such animals.

Amen!

Paul and Susan, his wife, host the Bird Dogs Afield TV show. Past episodes may be seen on their website. www. b i rd d o g s a f i e l d . c o m .

Contact:paul@birddogsafield.com

Page 10

Northwoods Sporting Journal

“A Hiker’s Life”

by Carey Kish, Mt. Desert Island, ME The Appalachian Trail is the most famous long distance footpath in the world, and with the recent release of the movie “A Walk in the Woods,” it’s likely to become more popular than ever. According to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, over 3 million people take to the

pleted in 1937 through the end of 1969, just 59 people had walked the whole trail.

During the 1970s, 764 hikers joined the ranks of end-to-enders, including this hiker in 1977. Between 1980 and 2010, more than 10,000 more made the trek.

Today, an estimated 20,000 backpackers lay claim to

Thoughts After The Long Journey

dashed.

Between March and October, I hiked and camped through four seasons of weather and the beautiful mountain scenery of 14 states, met friendly people and enjoyed the camaraderie of hikers from around the country and the globe, experienced the hospitality of trail towns and the kindness of trail

Between March and October, I hiked and camped through four seasons of weather and the beautiful mountain scenery of 14 states, met friendly people and enjoyed the camaraderie of hikers from around the country and the globe... trail each year, for a day, a weekend or a week, and, for some, many months.

Hiking the entire AT is the adventure of a lifetime, and mastering the grueling 2,189.2 miles from Springer Mountain, Georgia, to Baxter Peak on Maine’s Katahdin is a crowning achievement for any backpacker.

From the time the Appalachian Trail was com-

the “2,000-miler” mantle.

This hiker was one of some 3,500 individuals who attempted the AT in 2015, and I feel fortunate to be counted among those who made it all the way, battered gear and bruised body parts notwithstanding. With an attrition rate hovering around 75 percent, the dreams of many others, despite their extraordinary efforts, were

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July 2021

angels, survived several scary wildlife encounters (snakes, bears, bees), and coped with the many highs and lows of putting one foot in front of the other for six long months.

The AT is much different than when I hiked it 38 years ago. There were a lot fewer people on the trail then, which made for a much lonelier hike. I hitchhiked or walked into towns to resupply; shuttles were unheard of. I carried state road maps to locate towns and once there, had to figure out where everything was.

Hostels were few, as were outfitters, and grocery stores carried little in the way of lightweight foods. Gear was heavy, and trail guides and maps were bulky. Spotty trail blazing and signage often left me wondering which way to go. Communication was by pay phone and letters in the mail.

Today, hikers are armed with a wealth of helpful information, and

there are services and amenities aplenty. Everyone uses a smartphone to post to social media sites, check the weather, book accommodations and rides, write journals, take photos and read e-books. Several GPS apps allow you to dispense with guidebooks and maps altogether. Ultra-lightweight gear and clothing are standard, as are packable foods.

In 1977 the AT had yet to be fully protected, but today a conservation corridor encompassing 270,000 acres forms what is America’s skinniest national park.

Local volunteers maintain the permanent trail route as well as the hundreds of shelters, campsites and privies. Trail mileage on roads has decreased from 200 to 20.

There may be more hikers than ever on the trail today, but ample solitude is easy to find, the natural beauty still beckons, the physical and mental challenge of months of continuous hiking is the same and the overall experience remains life changing.

Looking ahead, I’ve got my eye on a few long trails, including the Colorado Trail, New England Trail, GR 11 through the French Pyrenees and across

Britain from Land’s End to John O’Groats. For now, however, I’m just happy to be home.

If you have an AT thru-hike in mind for next year, now’s the time to get planning in earnest. Let me know if I can help.

Carey’s AT thru-hike, by the numbers 7: Average hours per day on the trail 13: Average miles per day on the trail 3.2: Lowest daily mileage 21.3: Highest daily mileage 82: Nights spent indoors (hostels, motels or other lodging) 107: Nights camped outside (tent, shelter, fire tower or in the open) 136: Meals eaten at restaurants 173: Days hiked out of the 189 days it took to complete the hike 200: Extra miles walked (to springs, shelters, viewpoints, around towns) Carey Kish is the author of “AMC’s Best Day Hikes Along the Maine Coast” and editor of the “AMC Maine Mountain Guide.” Follow more of his outdoor adventures on Facebook @Carey Kish.

Northwoods Sporting Journal

July 2021

Me & Joe (Cont. from pg 7)

gonna pay for it.”

Joe stared at him with concern. “You mean the dam broke?”

“No, no, it’s a good strong dam.” He took another sip of coffee. “But it ain’t high enough. Water’s flowin’ right over it. The whole length of it. Way the water’s gushin’ down that stream, they might as well be no dam there at all.”

Me and Joe stared at each other. I threw some money on the table and we grabbed our slickers and ran for the Jeep, leaving Abner open-mouthed in our wake.

As we pulled up at the shore of Rocky Stream, our worst fears were confirmed. Whole sections of the eel dam had torn away in the raging torrent, drifting downstream.

On the near shore Hiram Squirm hung onto a rope, heels dug into the bank, while another section of the damn swung on the other end of the rope, trying to break off downstream. We quickly ran and grabbed onto the rope, adding our weight and strength to his.

But it was no use. Slowly, inexorably, the current tore the length of rack from our grasp. We released our grip on the rope just before it towed us into the stream. We watched it bounce against rocks and logs, slowly turning in the floodwaters, moving downstream.

“Gonna lose it all!”

Hiram cried morosely, his wet hair plastered to his skull. “But at least I’ve still got the box. With all them eels in it the weight seems to be holding it…oh no!” he wailed.

The big box trap, freed from attachment to

the remains of the dam, suddenly began to lift from the bottom and then settle back. It lifted and settled several times and seemed to be holding in place. But the water level was still rising. In just a few moments it lifted slightly higher and failed to sink back. Bumping and grinding along the bottom, it began floating majestically downstream.

“Oh no!” Hiram cried.

He turned to us desperately.

“You’ve got to help me save the eels!” If we take the big canoe, maybe we can swing it into the shallows somewhere!”

Running into the canoe, we quickly turned it over. Life jackets and paddles lay underneath.

We threw them into the canoe and heaved it into the water, leaping aboard as it swung into the current.

“We ain’t gonna be able to catch it before it makes the main river!” Joe

Page 11

shouted from the stern. I glanced ahead through the rain just as the box reached the corner and floated out into the deeper waters of the Little Salt Pork. Freed of bumping along the bottom, the box picked up speed, floating merrily away. We dug in with our paddles and poured on the coal.

As we rounded the point into the river, I could see that we were gaining on the floating box. It was staying quite close to the right hand shore and, if we could get a rope on it, we should be able to nudge it into the shallows.

Suddenly, over the noise of the river, I heard shrill cries and shrieks of laughter from up ahead.

Then I remembered that the Loggers Temperance Society was holding their big dunking in the river at the public landing just downstream. Peering through the

rain, I could see partially naked bodies prancing and splashing in the icy water a few hundred yards away.

I turned to shout back at Joe and Hiram, urging more speed, when something in the river just ahead caught my eye. It was a disturbance in the surface of the water just about the public landing. I suddenly recalled the fieldstone jetty that jutted out into the river upstream from the beach, built to deflect the heavy current of the river away from the public swimming area. The high water was running right over the top of the jetty, totally submerging the rocks.

I smiled and turned to look back at my two partners. “It’s going to be okay!” I shouted into the wind. “The box will fetch up against the jetty!”

But I had underestimated both the buoyancy (Me & Joe cont. 19)

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Sporting Journal Northwoods

The Northwoods Bowhunter

by Brian Smith, Machiasport, ME The big male bear stepped out from the jack firs testing the air with his keen nose. He had reached

up at me. He was so close I could see his nostrils flaring even with my aging eyesight as I worked to

Prepare for Bowhunting Bear

very hot, humid weather and not seeing a bear.

When tending my bait that morning, I retrieved game cam photos showing a fat boar here at dawn. This evening, the temperature dropped into the 70s and

Waiting for a perfect broadside shot at 17 yds, I drew my 60 lb bow and moved my finger to the release. I took a deep breath as he looked at me and placed the 15 yard pin mid chest area and squeezed the trigger. this age and large size control my own breathing. by being very wary. He It was August 30, walked directly under my 2018, my 4th afternoon on 15’ ladder stand and stared stand after 3 evenings of

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there was a light breeze in my face. My ScentLok full camouflage from head to toe worked and the heavy boar went slowly to the 5 gallon bait bucket.

When he knocked the 30 lb rock and lid off the bait he jumped back into the thick brush behind the bait and reassessed his hunger versus possible danger.

The trail mix and molasses mixture smelled too good to pass up so he moved back to the bucket. Waiting for a perfect broadside shot at 17 yds, I drew my 60 lb bow and moved my finger to the release. I took a deep breath as he looked at me and placed the 15 yard pin mid chest area and squeezed the trigger.

The 100 grain arrow zipped through him like butter. He woofed and lumbered only 20 yds before piling up and emitting a death moan, within seconds. I could see his black lifeless form 35 yds away and was thrilled to have almost an hour of daylight left to get him out of the woods.

Uncle Craig and friend Harry helped me drag and load him into my pickup. While field dressing we discovered the three-blade broad head passed through the heart.

The bear weighed 252 lbs.

I had taken 4 other heavier bear in years past, but still received the Largest Maine Archery Bear award that year. The shoulder mount joined 6 others on our living room walls and we got almost 100 lbs of lean boned out meat from him.

My success on such

I like to use 5 gallon buckets filled with trail mix or molasses soaked animal feed for ease of carry.

My sites are freshened every other day with bacon grease or cooking oil and I hang scent rags dipped in anise oil or other sweet smelling attractant. Bears

The author with his 252 lb bow bear. a trophy bear was a result have an incredible sense of of weeks of preparation, smell and despite all of the practice and tending my wonderful smells at a bait own bait sites. In Maine, site can still detect human hunters can set out baits 30 or foreign odors. days prior to the start of the Wash your scent suphunting season. Start with pression clothing weekly getting written permission in detergent designed for on private land to put bait, that and use scent killing cameras, treestands, use dryer sheets then store in ATVs if needed and to closed containers. Spray cut branches for shooting yourself and clothing with lanes. I look for typical scent killing spray and use bear habitat near blue- a Thermacell instead of berry fields or raspberry/ smelly insect repellents. blackberry patches with Breathable and quiet camthick softwoods and water ouflaged clothing and scent located nearby. Maine has suppression boots are a the largest bear population must in the warmer days of in the lower 48 and can be early fall. I prefer a 15-20’ found throughout the state ladder stands always set up but the densest populations in the shade and downwind are in the big woods.

(Bear cont. pg 41)

July 2021

Northwoods Sporting Journal

Bring Enough Gun

A recent discussion at the shooting range was interesting enough to demand your attention, so I am relaying it. Not word for word, because I did not take notes or record the conversation, but it got me thinking, and it might make you scratch your head as well.

What’s the biggest gun you have ever fired?

Or even held?

For me, the second

and hold it, absolving my grandfather of my explaining my tragic death by recoil to my grieving mother.

Since that time, I doubt I have fired a gun more powerful than a .30’06 or .45-70—both of which are big enough.

For deer hunting, we really don’t need something as powerful as a .30-’06, which is powerful enough for all North American big game and can be lethal

never been in a gun store and overheard a fellow customer inquire after a low-powered rifle.

The discussion at the range turned to practically every young marksman’s first shooting arm, the .22 rimfire; and whether those are suitable for hunting anything much bigger than a woodchuck in a garden.

Probably not. But we do need something more powerful than a .22 rimfire to hunt deer in Maine.

According to Maine law

Page 13

Marsh Island Chronicles

by Matthew Dunlap, Old Town, ME cussion got serious. Why does Maine allow the .22 magnum for deer hunting?

Without doing a deep historic dive, we could only speculate that it had something to do with junior hunters back in the day. Suitable low-recoil deer calibers for young hunters are a lot more versatile and available today than they were

What’s the biggest gun you have ever fired? Or even held?

(Maine Revised Statutes Annotated, Title 12, § 11454) we are told “a person may not hunt deer with any firearms using a .17 or .22 caliber rimfire cartridge, except that the use of the .22 caliber rimfire Is the .22 magnum enough gun for hunting Maine whitetails? (Photo by Diane Reynolds) magnum cartridge is not question is easier. Many for anything but the truly prohibited.”

That’s where the disyears ago and very far dangerous game animals away while visiting my of Africa. grandfather, he let me The conversation at hold a long-departed fam- the range turned around, ily member’s Holland and then, to lesser calibers. The Holland .600 Nitro Express ones we really use—the double rifle that had been .30-30 Winchester, the .35 the centerpiece of danger- Remington, the .303 Britous game hunts in Africa ish, the .32 Winchester prior to World War I. It was Special, and how the big a massive gun, and because outdoor media outlets have, I was twelve years old, my since the wildcat craze of grandfather cheerily of- the 1950s, urged us on to fered to allow me to shoot ever-more powerful carthe gun. But first, I had to tridges, lethal at longer be able to shoulder it and distances, with the comebe able to hold it steady in hither rifles for us to spend an off-hand position. ever more money on.

Forget it. The big riDon’t get me wrong. fle weighed about fifteen I have nothing against the pounds, which would be rise of the magnum rifle. scary for me to shoot even But do we need a .300 now, but it was materi- Magnum to take a doe? ally impossible for me and In the marketing lingo of my stick-figure arms al- the firearms industry, we most forty-five years ago. are drawn to high-powI couldn’t bring the gun up ered rifles for hunting. I’ve

even in the 1970’s, and while we argued whether any .22 caliber round is good enough for deer—and some gun writers argue that even the .223 and .22-250 rounds aren’t (and I’m not stirring that pot here), we all came away wondering why the .22 magnum isn’t prohibited, and even more

practically, who even uses it for deer?

If you’ve ever wounded a deer and had to track it, you know that it’s best to put the critter down quickly, preferably with a single shot. I’ve only ever had to track one wounded deer, and it was a nervewracking and unpleasant experience. The law may allow for a .22 magnum; but for me? I’ll just bring enough gun.

Matt Dunlap is a sportsman from Old Town and is a periodic co-host on Maine Outdoors, heard statewide every Sunday night at 7:00 pm on WVOM 103.9 FM, WVQM 101.3 FM, and 1450 AM in Rockland.

Page 14

Edited by V. Paul Reynolds

July. Let a maskless summer begin! Although fishing has begun to peak, there is much angling left.

Togue (Lake Trout) will be found by those willing to go down deep with lead core line or downriggers.

Fly fishers are keeping a vigil over the ever-popular Green Drake hatch on trout ponds. Stripers and mackerel runs keep it going for salt water anglers. Bass fishermen are enjoying Maine’s incomparable bass fishery.

And, believe it or not, bear hunters and bear guides have already begun laying plans for the annual bear season that begins the end of next month!

Meanwhile, if you were lucky enough to boat a fat landlocked salmon, don’t forget to poach it, apply an egg sauce and find some fresh garden peas to go along. Happy Fourth of July!

Northwoods Sporting Journal

July 2021

Outdoor News - July 2021 Carroll Ware Named Legendary Maine Guide

ventures for over 30 years, providing adventures not only throughout Maine, but also in international sporting destinations throughout the world.

Carroll and his wife operated Bosebuck Camps along the shore of Lake Aziscohos for years, delivering a Maine sporting camp experience to hundreds of anglers and hunters. They also operated a longtime school for students interested in becoming a Maine guide, passing along the skills and traditions necessary to become a successful guide.

Carroll Ware, a longtime guide from Skowhegan and Northwoods Sporting Journal columnist, was honored by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife with the Wiggie Robinson Legendary Maine Guide Award recently. The award was presented by MDIFW Commissioner Judy Camuso in a small ceremony at the MDIFW headquarters.

“Carroll embodies what it means to be a Maine Guide,” said MDIFW Commissioner Judy Camuso, Carroll Ware “Not only does he possess an extensive knowledge of the Maine outdoors, but Carroll is happy to share his knowledge with others, and is also very involved in his community.”

Carroll became a registered Maine Guide in 1989, and he has been busy in the Maine outdoors nearly every moment since.

Carroll also is active He and his wife Lila have operated Fins and Furs Ad- in the Skowhegan community as part of the Elks organization, he has mentored at risk youth in the field of boxing, as well as being a veteran of the US The elusive Northwoods Sporting Journal’s Armed Forces. He regumoose Marty. larly donates much of his He has wandered into the northwoods. wild game to friends and neighbors, as well as the Find Marty somewhere in the Northwoods Sporting local food pantry.

Journal (Hint: he will be located in one of our ads) Send us the page number he’s on and you could be a WINMarty The Wiggie Robinson NER! Win a FREE Northwoods Sporting Journal Marty Legendary Maine Guide Hat. We will draw one winner from all correct entries submitted each month. We will announce the winner in Award is presented annuthe next issue. ally at the Maine ProfesShown actual size PLEASE MAIL THIS FORM TO: sional Guides Association Northwoods Sporting Journal P.O. Box 195, West Enfield, ME 04493 annual banquet. Due to Ben York Name Covid restrictions, Carrol Marty was Address Ware was honored during found on pg 7 the virtual banquet, and City State Zip Entries must be then received his award postmarked by Phone 7/12/21 at MDIFW headquarters. to be eligible for Winners must have been I found Marty on page this issue.

HELP US FIND

a Registered Maine Guide for 20 years and been an active guide for at least 10 of those years. Along with guiding, winners must be active in the local or outdoor community, or active on boards or committees that enhances and promotes the importance of Maine’s outdoor resources.

Maine Wardens, Allagash Ranger Rescue Capsized Canoeists

The Maine Warden Service, with the help of an Allagash Wilderness Waterway Ranger, rescued two capsized canoeists on Chamberlain Lake in Northern Piscataquis County in late May. The pair were in the water for over 90 minutes, and likely would have drowned in the cold water if not for wearing their PFDs (personal floatation devices).

Joshua Tinnel, age 43, and Shawna Robinson, age 51, both of Nitro, West Virginia, were on Chamberlain Lake canoeing a portion of the Allagash Wilderness waterway when their 16’ canoe filled with water in the high winds and capsized at approximately 9:30 a.m.

The pair quickly became separated from their canoe in the high winds, and they activated the SOS

feature on their GPS beacon, which transmitted their location to the Maine Warden Service.

Warden James Gushee and Warden Mark Hutchinson were in the area, and enlisted the help of Allagash Ranger Jay Young, who had a Boston Whaler that could handle the rough winds docked nearby at the north end of Chamberlain Lake. The trio were able to motor to the spot transmitted by the GPS, and then located Tinnel and Robinson, floating with their gear in the high waves.

While Young maneuvered the boat, Gushee and Hutchinson where able to haul Tinnel and Robinson into the boat where they could administer care. The pair were hypothermic, and wardens wrapped them in sleeping bags, and then took them to the Allagash Ranger Station where they warmed up, and then were released.

“If they were not wearing their PFDs, this story would have had a very tragic ending,” said Maine Warden Service Lieutenant Tom Ward. “Hypothermia sets in quickly with water temperatures this cold, and their life jackets saved them.”

This is the third incident in the past month where the Warden Service has rescued capsized paddlers who were able to stay afloat because they were wearing PFDs. The Maine Warden Service urges all boaters to wear their life jackets.

New Hampshire Trout Season

You can fish in many (News cont. pg 37)

July 2021

Northwoods Sporting Journal

Old Boats: Backcountry Litter

For generations, Mainer’s have stored watercraft of all shapes, sizes, and colors shoreside in the backcountry. While most are on private property open to public access, some are on state-owned land or

the Great Ponds Act, and would likely be considered abandoned property or litter in a court of law if challenged.

When I first started fishing Maine there were homemade boats on many

taxpayers, or land owned by non-profits purchased with memberships and donations.

What I would like to see is an effort to clean up the decades-old boats that are not serviceable, those that have not been used in years, and the associated litter. This would remove

Page 15

Native Fish Talk

by Bob Mallard, Skowhegan, ME privilege not a right. With this comes the responsibility for self-policing and cleaning up after ourselves so the next generation of sportsmen doesn’t have to.

And with changing land ownership, a preemptive move on our part could

fly fished for forty years.

He is the former owner of Kennebec River Outfitters, a Registered Maine Fishing Guide, and a commercial fly designer. Bob is a blogger, writer, and author. He is also a native fish advocate and founding

Storing boats on private land is a privilege not a right. It is a tradition found in few places outside of Maine, and part of what makes the state’s outdoor experience unique.

land owned by non-profits.

Some are chained to trees, some are not. Most are serviceable, but many are not.

I am guilty as charged: I have 14 boats stored across eight Maine ponds.

I fish six of the ponds regularly, but haven’t fished two in roughly a decade. While two boats need some work to fix leaks, and one badly, all are serviceable except one that fell victim to a fallen tree.

Without backcountry boat storage, many ponds would be difficult to fish due to their distance from the road, and what are often marginal trails. And while you can hump in a float tube, and I do on some waters, it’s much more difficult than sliding a boat into the water upon arrival.

Storing boats on private land is a privilege not a right. It is a tradition found in few places outside of Maine, and part of what makes the state’s outdoor experience unique.

And to be clear, boat storage is not covered under

ponds. One of my favorites was made from two 1940’s vintage car hoods welded together in the middle. Another was a lashed-log raft with a wooden milk crate for a seat. Many had homemade paddles stuffed under them, as well as anchors made from cans filled with cement, and a cut plastic bottle bailer.

Many backcountry boats have fallen into disrepair or been abandoned.

Styrofoam flotation, old duct tape, broken thwarts with rusty nails protruding from them, and other debris litters the ground around them. Some are upright filled with water.

Others are broken in half or pinned under a fallen tree.

The amount of boat litter on some ponds is notable.

I am in no way proposing we do away with backcountry boat storage, especially now that I am in my sixties and well past the time when carrying a canoe into the woods was no big deal. This includes stateowned lands paid for by

safety hazards such as nails and sharp edges, while making it easier for those whose boats remain by lessening the clutter.

To do this, we would need a coordinated effort involving Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and Parks and Lands, as well as non-profs such as AMC, TNC, SAM, TU, and Native Fish Coalition. And the snowmobile community could play a huge role as hauling stuff out over snow is the best option in many cases. Intact but abandoned boats could be used to carry out debris, and then sold to raise money for ongoing removal.

Speaking for Native Fish Coalition, our Maine chapter would be willing to help and even coordinate the effort with online maps and a sign-up/tracking process. Volunteers could identify obviously unused boats while fishing, and lift the bow for visibility and mark it with an orange “x” for later removal. We could identify and mark staging areas for winter drop-offs, and coordinate spring removal using trucks and trailers.

Boat storage is a

help save this important and unique Maine tradition.

I’d gladly hop on the back of a snowmobile, put on a pair of snowshoes, and drag my one unserviceable boat up the hill so it can be easily removed. I cringe every time I walk past it, knowing that I am the reason it now sits there in disrepair. I’d sleep better if it were gone, and would be willing to give up a day to make that happen.

BOB MALLARD has

member, Executive Director, and Maine Board Member for Native Fish Coalition. Look for his books 50 Best Places Fly Fishing the Northeast and 25 Best Towns Fly Fishing for Trout (Stonefly Press,) and Squaretail: The Definitive Guide to Brook Trout and Where to Find Them and Favorite Flies for Maine: 50 Essential Patterns from Local Experts (Stackpole) due out December 2021.

Bob can be reached at www.BobMallard.com or info@bobmallard.com

Page 16

The Gun Cabinet

Northwoods Sporting Journal

I Am The NRA

by John Floyd, Webster Plantation, ME Behind steel reinforced doors in a concrete bunker deep in the bowels of a stately compound in rural Virginia, men conspire to seek the ruination of America. Smoky backrooms are filled with Washington politicians, eagerly

Yet, this is what gungrabbing liberal media elitists and anti-gun activists want you to believe.

And oath-breaking politicians are all too eager to go along for the ride. Why not? What counts is getting elected; not the Constitu-

ply ridiculous. The NRA’s lobbying efforts are a direct result of dues paying members concerns about their Constitutional right to keep and bear arms; a right under constant assault by progressive anti-gun ideologues. Let me reiterate that one more time – a right, not a privilege. And as stated in the highest law of the land, it shall not be

Here is an earth-shaking revelation for some: The National Rifle Association is comprised of dues paying members; that is to say – regular people, doing regular jobs, every regular day. There is no evil cabal locked away anywhere, celebrating mass slaughter. awaiting their turn at the dole, kissing the ring and doing the bidding of their masters. All who enter bow at the altar of the gun, and the evil clergy of this sinister church of gun worship, the NRA, sermonize to their congressional congregation – thy will be done.

What a bunch of baloney. Who really believes this nonsense?

tion, the truth or their constituents safety.

Here is an earth-shaking revelation for some: The National Rifle Association is comprised of dues paying members; that is to say – regular people, doing regular jobs, every regular day. There is no evil cabal locked away anywhere, celebrating mass slaughter. The idea is sim-

infringed.

The NRA is also responsible for the framework and foundation of our military and law enforcement firearm training programs. They were also the first to introduce formal gun safety education programs like the Eddie Eagle Gunsafe Program, to keep guns out of children’s hands. The Training and Education division is filled with thousands of citizen instructors, who are committed to teaching the safe handling, usage and responsible ownership of firearms.

But that doesn’t stop politicians from whipping up frenzy, spreading false

information and fanning the flames of fear in the aftermath of a tragedy to suit their own agenda. Which is to get re-elected of course.

Blame is always assigned to an inanimate object or a faceless evil empire, not the actor who committed the crime. Inanimate objects can be banned and regulated; fixing moral depravity isn’t as easy.

Ask yourself this question. Why, during President Barack Obama’s term in the White House, when the very same gun grabbers had a super majority, controlling both houses of Congress, did they not ram through any of these very same types of ill-conceived anti-gun legislation? Did children’s lives not matter as much then? Of course that’s ridiculous, but that still does not answer the question.

Here’s a possible answer; the majority of Americans

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respect the law and understand evil people will find a way to commit violence by any means necessary, if that is what their heart is set to do. Most Americans respect the entire Bill of Rights, not just the ones they are most passionate about. The majority of Americans respect rule of law, not mob rule fueled by emotion.

And millions of those Americans are NRA members.

Your dentist is an NRA member. So is your mechanic. Your elementary school teachers are NRA members and so is the guy who fixes your boiler. Your airline pilot, package delivery driver, favorite actor, restaurant chef, school bus driver, nurse, doctor and the woman who planned your wedding are all NRA. The African-American man, Asian woman, Caucasian (NRA cont. pg 43)

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Northwoods Sporting Journal

Page 17

Camera Disasters

While I have many cameras out and get some great pictures, it doesn’t come without some mistakes. I always think that everything is working like

a well oiled machine until I reach one of the cameras and discover my blunder.

To make a mistake on the camera set up usually costs a lot of time and effort lost. These cameras are not usually in an easily accessible location.

Frustration is climbing a mountain to find a camera with no pictures because its not on. How do you forget to turn on a camera?

Rushing to finish or getting distracted are usually the culprit. Some disasters are not an absent minded mistake but something just plain went wrong.

The reason I am writing this is because today I

arrived at one of the cameras and the battery tray had popped out. This was a very long hike and the first time to check this new location. It’s not only

in some cases something missed will fill the SD card in a few days. Thousands of pictures of that beautiful branch. Some locations it is not prudent to try eliminating all the debris that will set the camera off, it’s the acceptable risk for some great shots.

Forgetting to add a waypoint to the GPS is one of the worst mistakes. Usually this happens when someone is along on the trip and conversation moves my attention away from the duties at hand.

The result is wondering around for hours out days hunting for my little camo box on a tree. On one occasion when the camera was found it had many pictures of Katy and I looking for it.

The bear didn’t have any about the time hiking to trouble finding it though. the camera but the time it Some disasters are was out there not getting not self-induced. Some pictures. The excitement and anticipation to see who had stopped by for their photo shoot is gone, what a let down. The tray obviously had not locked when it was pushed it in. The area that the camera was in was prime for wildlife but as summer gets into full swing this spot will dry up and not likely attract a lot of critters.

One of the most common problems is something missed during setup that will be moved by the wind, setting the camera off.

These always happen, but

What's In Your Woods

by Bud Utecht, T4 Indian Purchase Township animals do not want their for the next passer by. picture taken and go to So when you think great lengths to make sure you’ve made the worst it doesn’t happen. Usu- mistake I’ve probably got

Some animals do not want their picture taken and go to great lengths to make sure it doesn’t happen. Usually it’s a bear in the witness protection program. ally it’s a bear in the witness protection program.

They have chewed, clawed, cut the strap and spun the camera around the tree to avoid a modeling career.

Moose have also moved the cameras around a tree, the difference is they don’t break them. Sometimes a curious animal will get close enough to breath on the lens causing it to fog up. Luckily this clears up

a story.

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Page 18 Northwoods Sporting Journal

Outdoor Sporting Library

by Jeremiah Wood, Ashland, ME

Sometimes you buy a whole book just to read one story. Well, you might not, but I do. With the advent of modern technology and information at our fingertips, my web searches about outdoor writers and wilderness lifestyles often lead to the discovery of a story I just have to read, but can’t find anywhere.

It took me a while to figure out that a large portion of nonfiction books are simply collections of short stories that an author wrote for a magazine or newspaper, often as part of a monthly column. You write and write on a regular basis with that ever-motivating publisher’s deadline, and over the years, if you look back on it, you’ve probably

built up a pretty good pile of quality work.

As papers and magazines tend to be ephemeral in nature – read quickly and usually discarded – much of an author’s work can easily be forgotten in time.

A Book for One Story

Likewise, the editor of this publication gave me the very same advice a while back. It makes sense.

So back to the point.

A lot of stories are lost, but the good ones are preserved within those collections popular writers have gathered together to publish into books. And sometimes I’ll wander onto one of those stories, usually via

Walter Arnold (who I’ve since published a book on) and learned that Anderson’s book included a chapter on Arnold. As a bonus, I had the pleasure of learning more about famous woodsmen V.E. “Wildcat” Lynch and E.J. Dailey.

My most memorable ‘story’ book was “Table of Contents”, written by John McPhee. The New

As papers and magazines tend to be ephemeral in nature – read quickly and usually discarded – much of an author’s work can easily be forgotten in time.

That’s where books come in.

That’s where books come in. The advice well known Maine writer John Gould would give fellow authors was quite simple: literary consummation comes when the pile of work is big enough and you send it to a publisher. In other words, the trick to writing a book is simply getting enough stories together.

July 2021

some tangled spider web that started with a simple Google search, and have to buy another book so I can read the story.

One of the first of such books I discovered was titled “Goodbye Mountain Man”, by Donald Jack Anderson. I was looking for more information on legendary Maine trapper

Aroostook County www.visitaroostook.com www.visitaroostook.co m

Yorker columnist had written a story about northern Maine game warden pilot, guide and sporting camp owner Jack McPhee, who coincidentally shared his name. The story was an excellent view into the woods of northern Maine and its people, and led me to another McPhee story about the attempts to dam the St. John River and create an incredibly massive hydroelectric project, that, if constructed, would have changed the area forever. I had to buy another McPhee book to read that

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story. It, again, was worth it. From there I discovered McPhee’s book “Coming into the Country”, a story about wilderness living amongst the development of Alaska, which helped shape my views and spark a greater interest in that special place. I read all of that one.

The most recent book of stories I picked up is titled “Balancing Acts”, a collection of the writings of Edward Hoagland. I didn’t know it beforehand, but it turns out Ed is quite an accomplished essayist.

The story of interest was titled “Up the Black to Chalkyitsik” which follows Ed on a journey with professional trapper and woodsman Fred Thomas to visit his family on a hundred mile boat trip upriver from the village of Fort Yukon. It reminded me of a more modern version of a story in Ernie Pyle’s “Home Country”, which described the village of Fort Yukon and its people back in the 1940’s. Yep, that’s another book I own for the one story I just had to read.

You might think buying a book for just one story is a bit silly. After all, I almost never read the rest of the stories. They don’t interest me. Plus, the world of books is loaded with stories that I still need to get my hands on. Maybe someday we’ll be able to purchase the individual stories, but until then, those books of stories will continue to fill the shelf and empty the wallet!

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Me & Joe

(Cont. from pg 11) of the box and the depth of water pouring over the jetty. The very bottom of the box struck against the top of the submerged rocks and the whole box began to tip. We watched in horror as the big trap tipped more and more until it was nearly horizontal. And then the top cover swung loose and hundreds of eels gushed out into the swimming area downstream. Almost immediately, the shrieks of laughter among the plungers turned to screams of terror.

We pulled the canoe in to shore just above the jetty and ran down to the beach. In the shallow water, scores of eels swirled and squirmed around the legs and thighs of the swimmers. The eels, just as stunned and terrified as the swimmers, wrapped themselves around bare legs and ankles or sank needlesharp teeth into exposed hands and fingers. With a mindless roar of fear, the whole throng of swimmers lurched in a solid mass toward shore, for all the world like migrating wildebeests in Africa trying to escape the clutches of marauding crocodiles.

We s t o o d a n d watched, open-mouthed,

Northwoods Sporting Journal as women and men pranced around the beach, arms waving throats hoarse from screaming, while eels unwrapped themselves from legs and dropped from hands, to squirm their way back toward the water.

Joe nudge me.

“Move!” he hissed. “This way!” We stumbled over the low retaining wall and stood behind the upstream wall of the tackle shop, peering around the corner.

Unfortunately, Hiram had failed to heed the call. He still stood awestruck at the mayhem taking place on the beach.

Then Patience Hefty spotted him standing at the edge of the sand.

“YOU!” she roared over the cries of the terrified swimmers. Immediately, everyone grew quiet as the last of the eels slithered back into the water. Finger extended, hands red and bleeding from eel bites, trunk-like legs coated in fish slime, Patience stalked toward the terrified Hiram.

“You and your #@%$ eel trap! Look what you’ve DONE!” Never a particularly brave man, Hiram spoke not a word in his defense.

He simply turned on a heel and ran. With a combined trumpeting cry worthy of a herd of elephants, the entire horde of the Temperance

Society went thundering off in pursuit.

A few minutes later, when we were sure the coast was clear, me and Joe emerged from behind the tackle shop.

“We play our cards right, nobody will think about us,” Joe said quietly.

“I feel kind of guilty about Hiram, though,” I said.

“Ain’t about guilt.

It’s about survival!” Joe said. And we snuck off through the woods toward his cabin.

We hid out for two days, but it seemed like nobody was paying us much attention. On the third day, Hiram Squirm appeared at Joe’s door. Every inch of his exposed flesh was black and blue, covered with scratches and what looked suspiciously like teeth marks. He stood on the porch, supporting himself with a cane.

“Never so terrified in my life,” he croaked. “If they could all of got at me, I’d be dead. But they was so many of them, they got in each other’s way That darn Patience done most of the beating, and scratching and biting, anyway.

They should have named her Impatience, or Lack of Patience, or something.

Wouldn’t even give me a chance to explain. Say,” he

Page 19

peered at us suspiciously, “how come you guys ain’t all beat up too?”

Joe grinned sheepishly. “Well, I dunno, Hiram. I guess they just blamed the whole thing on you. After all, it was your eel dam.”

“Yeah, I know.” He sighed and leaned against the doorframe. “They said they were going to sue me for everything they could get.” He shook his head.

“Cost me a thousand dollar donation to that dang temperance society to get out of it.”

A sudden gleam came into his eye and he stood

straighter. “But I’m gonna get back at ‘um,” he said with a sarcastic grin.

“Bought me a piece of land on the corner of the Munsungan Road, where it leads toward the logging camps. That’s why I came to see you boys again. I need some help.”

“Help?” Joe said suspiciously.

“Yeah. I’m gonna build me a little tavern right on that spot. Gonna cater to the loggers. Before I’m done I’m gonna get…”

Joe slammed the door in his face.

And locked it.

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Northwoods Sporting Journal

Aroostook Woods & Water

by Mike Maynard, Perham, ME If it’s July, I figured it must be time to buy a new boat. I can’t buy anymore fly rods or guns, I just can’t.

But a new ride…? Yup, my wife said I almost deserve one. I was trying to load

voice whispers in my ear, “Hi! You don’t know me but my coming was foretold to you many years ago.” I looked around, but there was nobody there.

I heard the voice behind

I knew who this voice belonged to.

Father Time! Old age! The SOB was standing right behind me. …and he wouldn’t even help me load the boat. my kayak onto the truck the other morning; my ark of the waters, my barge -St.Behemoth; Mad River claims a dry weight of 69 pounds, but they’re full of it. 169lb.s is more like it.

I was struggling and in pain. All of a sudden I feel a tap on my shoulder and a cheery, disembodied

me again, “We’re going to have so much fun, you and I!” Then it hit me, like a Chuck Norris roundhouse kick to the solar plexus.

I knew who this voice belonged to. Father Time!

Old age! The SOB was standing right behind me. …and he wouldn’t even

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July 2021

help me load the boat.

“Noooooo, you’re on your own!” he laughed as I felt more surgically repaired ligaments start to separate from their titanium moorings.

Physically, I’ve had a few parts and pieces replaced and I’m starting to feel it. Spinal fusion, the odd shoulder re-build, and a knee that spins around like Linda Blair’s head.

All of a sudden, going for a simple float becomes an issue of pain endurance.

My wife, …the smart one, has kayaks that are long, sleek, and light. Hers are also much faster than mine.

Something she takes great pleasure in pointing out; rubs my nose in it whenever we’re on the water together. “Bye, honey!”, she waves to me as she disappears over the waves.

It was she that said I should consider making a concession to this ‘time’

Trying to find a boat that fits your age is a challenge.

(Photo courtesy Old Town Canoe Co.) thing. Maybe I needed a something that would fit smaller, lighter boat, she the bill without breaking said. Well, I’m invincible the bank. As I started my so that’s completely un- search, I was immediately necessary. I fought the idea, reminded of the words of I’m still fighting it, but she our own Gil Gilpatrick: may be on to something. I “Keels on canoes are an told you, she was the smart abomination!” (emphasis one, right? She thinks I mine; sorry, Gil). need to downsize to a solo Old Town had a boat I canoe. Maybe a 13’-14’- thought was intriguing. The ish canoe or kayak. So, I Discovery 119 Solo Sportsstarted looking around for man. Still a bit heavy, but probably manageable. I ` Sidewalk Cafe Premium Coppers Lounge went to the local shop to check one out, and here’s Lodging where I realized that this might not be as simple as I thought. I’m not petite; I’m fairly robust in that sedentary way that spending a year cooking your way through a pandemic can make you look. I’m Special rates for large groups, school 6’3” 260 lbs, with size teams & organizations 14 feet. When I sat in the 436 Main Street • Presque Isle, ME 04769 Discovery, I found that I www.northeastlandhotel.com needed the foot braces to be 1-800-244-5321 207-768-5321 at their furthest position for me to paddle comfortably.

Trouble is, this makes the foot braces land forward of the bow thwart and my clown shoes can’t get to the braces because they’re blocked by Old Town’s giant thwart/tool rail contraption. If I’m in my waders, (Age cont. pg 27)

July 2021

Letters (Cont. from pg 8) poorly situated for many to routinely use and only marginally managed for good habitat/deer hunting.

MDIFW routinely sides with private landowners relative to land posting, even assisting them in that endeavor using programs and landowner incentives funded with public money to ‘educate’ the public at large in the ways of preserving/promoting landowner rights while ignoring rights of other less fortunate hunters who are the primarily money source for MDIFW positions, programs and interests.

Unfortunately, this approach allows private land posters to reap the benefits of taking public game without outside competition, essentially creating private hunting preserves for a small segment of the hunting public who have the good fortune of owning their own huntable acreage. The rest of the hunting populace must fight for available land scraps to hunt on...and deal with ever-expanding MDIFW restrictions and permit requirements for hunting public land. This scenario essentially constitutes an unfair taking of public property (the game itself is public property) by those who post their land, without affording fair compensation or opportunity to others who are shut out Crossword Answers Across: 1 Honey Locust, 6 Ragged Lake, 7 Fly, 8 Hare, 9 Racer, 12 Wren, 14 Saco, 15 Depot, 16 Weed.

Down: 1 Horned, 2 Nighthawk, 3 Lady Fern, 4 Clary, 5 Spencer Pond, 10 Crane, 11 Wild, 13 East.

Northwoods Sporting Journal from access to those same game populations. Aside from this patent unfairness or perhaps because of it, average hunters are becoming more disinterested in continuing the hunting tradition, forced out by the very agency and legislative policies they pay for with their own tax money.

A dying sport for the average hunter, a lucrative opportunity for privileged landowners.

Posting land and continued state-level support for this practice...that is the true reason for falling harvest statistics and growing general disinterest in hunting. It will only get worse without adjustments to state game, land and compensation management policies to level the playing

field.

Tony St Peter Hallowell Editor’s note: We think this touches some very salient points about why we are losing hunters in Maine. Over the years, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries has conducted a Landowner Relations Program with a salaried coordinator, usually a game warden, whose job it is to convince large landowners not to post land to outdoor recreation. The actual data, on the level of success or lack thereof, has been elusive at best.

Put simply, have IF&W’s efforts borne any fruit? It is hard to tell.

(Letters cont. pg 53)

Aroostook County

Page 21

are and the time there. I guess I’ve never had a need to prove I’m smarter than fish. My time on the water (Cont. from pg 3) is simply too precious bethings simple. Maybe I’m cause they are all too few wrong but for me I don’t and someday will end. think so.

Al Raychard and his It’s all relative, of course. For some it might wife Diane live on 43 +/mean rattling the brain to acres in Lyman, Maine match the hatch and hope- that provides deer and turfully having the fly that key hunting opportunities, does it. For some it’s the which they both enjoy. If catching that counts. Or, it the property had a small can mean carrying a much trout stream it would be smaller selection that have a true paradise. Al can be proven their worth and reached at alraychard@ simply enjoying where you sacoriver.net

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Northwoods Sporting Journal

THE BACK SHELF

From the files of the Northwoods Sporting Journal The best hunting and fishing columns going back 25 years!

July 2021

The Baron Is Gone

while working in his flower garden at his camp on the West Branch of the Penobscot River. Joyce, his wife of 60 years, found him. It was her birthday and WigBy their very nature backshelf articles, resurrected from our archives, may contain information or facts that have been gie had picked some flowaltered or changed by the passage of time. ers for her that day.

Editor’s note: This ed his 85th birthday last I first met Wiggie tribute to Wiggie Robinson month. The well-known when I worked for the first ran in the July, 2007 and always ingratiating Maine Fish and Wildlfe issue of the Northwoods Maine Guide told me on Department. I had long his birthday that he was heard of the legendary Sporting Journal.

But my fondness for Wiggie Robinson goes far beyond a professional relationship. He was the dearest and best kind of a friend that you could ever hope for.

By V. Paul Reynolds Even though we know better, we still harbor this expectation that people who reach a near-legendary status will live forever.

Wiggie Robinson celebrat-

“shooting for 100.” A vital man of boundless energy, I thought he just might make it.

He didn’t. My friend, the Baron of the West Branch, died unexpectedly

Aroostook County

Maine guide, but we never had shaken hands. When we did, on the porch of his camp, I knew right then that I was in the company of somebody very special.

We hunted and fished and picked wild mushrooms together. I finally convinced him to write a monthly column for

Wilmot “Wiggie” Robinson, Maine’s first Legendary Maine Guide.

(Photo by Diane Reynolds)

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Baron (Cont. from pg 22) But my fondness for Wiggie Robinson goes far beyond a professional relationship. He was the dearest and best kind of a friend that you could ever hope for. As a man, he was and will always be an inspiration for me, a role model for how to live a life. He was a gentle man, and a gatherer, a gatherer of friends and a gatherer of wild things to eat: grouse, woodcock, venision, trout, mushrooms, wild cranberries, you name it. Despite his gentle manner, Wig was a person with strong opinions and a will to be heard, especially about fishing slot limits and the abbreviated woodcock season.

Always warm and witty, full of energy and optimism, he was a wonderful companion in a canoe or a turkey blind. Boston Globe writer Tony Chamberlain wrote that Wiggie looked, moved and thought like a man 20 years younger. His life motto, once disclosed to another writer, was “Stay active, live healthy, and never stop doing what you love.”

Wiggie’s contribution to the Maine outdoor community is a legacy.

He did much more than

guide hunters and anglers.

Everybody he met became his friend. He got involved.

He served for years on the guide’s examining board, was chairman of the Fish and Wildlife Advisory Council, and was an instigator of various sportsmen organizations including SAM, Millinocket Fin & Feather Club, Maine Trappers Assn, Maine Bird Dog Club and many others.

His favorite trout fly, the Maple Syrup, is nearly as famous as he is in Katahdin Country.

The day after Wiggie passed away at camp, I spent some quiet moments at his woods place, walking around and feeling Wiggie’s presence. Joyce knew that I wanted to do something to help, so she let me go up and shut off the gas. It’s little wonder that he spent so many hours of his life there. The view of Katahdin and the river is spectacular. And you should see his vegetable gardens!

Most of us don’t have

a say on how or when we depart this life, but for all the loss we feel, it is comforting to know that Wiggie went out the way he probably would have wanted - with his boots on working in his gardens on a spectacular June day in the shadow of that big mountain.

We’ll miss the Baron of the West Branch. But we can always be grateful for his friendship and his uncommon capacity to let his love shine through.

The author is editor of the “Northwoods Sporting Journal.” He is also a Maine guide and host of a weekly radio program — “Maine Outdoors” — heard Sundays at 7 p.m. on “The Voice of Maine News - Talk Network.” He has authored three books; online purchase information is available at www. maineoutdoorpublications. com. or www.sportingjournal.com. Contact email — vpaulr@tds.net

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Page 23

Legendary Guide Award

In 2009, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, in conjunction with the Maine Professional Guide’s Association (MPGA), did a wonderful thing. They created the Wiggie Robinson Legendary Guide Award. As was fitting, Robinson was the first (posthumous) recipient of his namesake award.

The idea was to select annually a deserving Registered Maine Guide for this honor and public recognition.

Legendary is a big word.

Since the fabled first Maine guide, Cornelia “Flyrod” Crosby, put Maine on the map for American sportsmen and women, there has been a continuous cadre of Maine guides, some famous, some not so famous, some obscure and a few, perhaps, even on the shady side.

Wiggie Robinson came as close as a contemporary Maine guide gets to being a bona fide legend. He was a true woodsman who grew up with it. He was well known and well liked.

He was active and involved, having served on the Maine guide’s board, Fish and Wildlife advisory council and in other capacities as a sportsman and guide. He walked the walk and talked the talk.

Since Robinson set the stage and served as the role model for the Legendary Maine Guide Award, there have been a number of other deserving Maine Guides singled out for this special recognition. Here is the roster of legendary Maine guides: Wilmot “Wiggie” Robinson (posthumously) 2009 Gil Gilpatrick 2010 Gary Corson 2011 Gardner Defoe 2012 Matthew P. Libby 2013 Don Dudley 2014 Danny Legere 2015 Richard Scribner 2016 Donald E. Helstrom, Jr 2017 Lance Wheaton, 2018 Bonnie Holding, 2019 Carroll Ware 2020

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Northwoods Sporting Journal

Spruce Mountain Sasquatch

Up on Spruce Mountain, down there on Route 9, There’s a place that’s forgotten by man and by time.

It’s a ten acre place where no one has gone, With some cliffs and a cave and it’s own little pond.

And a cloud always hides it so no one would know That way down in the forest, way down there below, Lived a creature so horrid time left it behind, A monstrous old big-foot, the last of his kind.

No one knew that he lived there high in those trees.

He liked it that way and he lived how he pleased.

Every once in a while he’d let out some sounds That they heard down in Wesley and three other towns.

by Robert Spearin Stood a strange snarling beast with all his teeth bared!

He stood and he looked and he glowered and glared.

Then he took a small step and he roared and he stared.

Well he looked eight feet tall or right around there And his body was covered with shaggy, brown hair.

His big arms hung freely way down to his knees, And his muscled up legs looked like two stumpy trees.

He stood and he looked and he sputtered and spat.

Then he jumped up and down and went this way and that.

July 2021

Then all of a sudden he rose from the ground, Looked straight over at me and, making no sound, He walked right over to me and threw out his hand, Grabbed my coat by the collar and forced me to stand.

“Well, now this is it. I am going to die,” I thought to myself as we stood eye to eye.

My shaking legs dangled two feet off the ground.

And his black eyes were crossed in a terrible frown.

He stood this way staring for just a short while.

Then he threw me back down and broke out in a smile.

He had wanted to scare me and that he had done, But he hadn’t quite guessed it would be such good fun.

‘Couse no one would go there, they stayed right away.

A few men had tried and were gone to this day.

I guess this last happened ‘bout nineteen and ten, And Big-foot had seen not a soul since back then.

So he patted my head, my shoulders and arm, And I saw by his look that he meant me no harm.

This big old boy liked me and thank God for that, For the others who came here had never gone back!

Well he sure didn’t know it and neither did I, But that would all change in the blink of an eye.

‘Cause I thought I would test out my skills and my luck That November by huntin’ a Spruce Mountain buck.

So we sat in the snow, right there side by side, And the grin on his face looked a country mile wide.

With no warning he stood, threw me over his shoulder And away we both went ‘round a cloud covered boulder.

So one cold gray morning, ‘bout seven below, I trudged up the mountain through deep falling snow.

I’d walked through tough country, but nothing like this, And the trail that I took sure had many a twist.

Behind this big rock was a well hidden cave.

His home, I surmised, by the way he behaved.

I was still pretty scared and would just as soon hide, But, with his arm ‘round my shoulders, we both stepped inside.

It turned and it writhed like an old crooked snake ‘Till I wasn’t quite sure which direction to take.

I was lost in the storm now but I didn’t mind, ‘Cause I just had to follow my tracks left behind.

In the back was a bed made of spruce boughs and leaves, Which I’m sure prob’ly kept him as warm as he pleased.

Had a stump for a table, a log for a chair, It looked like he had all he needed right there.

And, thinking this over, I started to feel This wasn’t so bad, not a really big deal.

Well, it wasn’t, till snow filled the last of my tracks.

I dared not go forward and could not go back!

As a woodsman I’d been in a pickle or two, But this looked quite bad and I thought I was through.

Then just up ahead through a calm in the storm, I saw something moving, some kind of a form.

Well it wasn’t a bear or a moose or a deer, ‘Cause it walked on two feet, I could see that quite clear!

So I grabbed my gun tightly and plowed right up through.

Just what I would find there, well God only knew!

I walked through some bushes, stepped ‘round a few trees And the snow was so deep it went clear to my knees.

I stepped on a log, slipped all over the place, And with my arms fanning air, I fell flat on my face.

I was struggling quite hard to get up off the ground When I heard a low growling, a strange sort of sound.

I turned my head slowly and ten feet from me, Was something I sure hope that you’ll never see!

Right there in the snow, just a bit over there,

He walked right over to me and threw out his hand.

(Illustration by V. Paul Reynolds)

He grabbed up a tree and gave out with a moan, Threw it ‘least thirty feet from where it had grown.

I was scared half to death so I started to run, Tripped over a stump, lost my hat and my gun.

I tried to get up but my legs wouldn’t go!

So I laid there and shook like a pup in the snow.

Now this beast must have thought that I took quite a fright, ‘Cause he stopped in his tracks to examine this sight!

He raised his thick eyebrows, looked left and looked right, Then he threw back his head and he howled with delight.

He laughed and he laughed ‘till he fell to the ground, Grabbed his sides and he rolled all around and around.

The big tears streamed down from this old ugly face, And the pine cones and twigs flew all over the place.

Well he tore up the woods for five minutes or more, And he bellowed and brayed ‘till his sides got all sore.

He tried to stop laughing. He tried and he tried.

Through his chuckling and chortling he snorted and cried.

Then I looked in a corner and there, on the floor, Were the bones of the others who’d come here before.

He looked at the pile then glanced back at me, Kind of searching for what my reaction might be.

But he wasn’t so bad, this ornery old cuss!

And I guess the big reason he’d made such a fuss Was to scare away strangers and people like me So they’d never come back and he’d always be free.

I knew there were other he’d killed in a rage, A long time ago, but he’d mellowed with age.

All he seemed to want now was to show me his home, So I thought that I’d show him some things of my own.

From my pack came a compass, a map and some cheese And he looked at ‘em closely and seemed mighty pleased.

But the things he liked best and seemed most to admire Were my matches and lighters and how they made fire.

So we gathered some branches and he chortled out

(Sasquatch cont. pg 62)

July 2021

Northwoods Sporting Journal

Page 25

Maine Fishing in July

In Maine, we are fortunate and thrilled to have year-round fishing opportunities in our own backyard. So whether you are a Mainer or someone from away, July seems to be the height of summer and fishing for many of us.

For multi-species fishing,

menced in preparation for the spawn.

Coinciding with the hex hatch is all the other clinger mayflies such as the light Cahills, which hatch through to mid-July. Hatching the entire month of July to September, is the cinnamon sedge, a common

pers, beetles, ants, and flying ants. It’s always a crapshoot which terrestrial will be hot so have all of them! Pay close attention to overhanging trees and shoreline banks for feeding salmon and trout. Terrestrials are an important fish food source in July for all waters in Maine!

July is also the month for our Damselfly on the Penobscot River. I am always amazed at the prolific hatches every summer that feeds fish. The Damselfly

Maine Outdoor Adventure

them. But please, as with any fish, let’s leave these fish where they are found and not propagate them.

Smallmouth bass is voracious, hungry predator that impacts any water they come in contact with.

Keeping fish where they are found presently is of most importance. The new general law, “no live bait

Starting the very first week of July in our ponds and lakes is our beloved Hex hatch or Hexagenia limbate. is said to be an indicator species that truly gauge the health of a river. Guiding the Penobscot river I am happy to say that today, this river is super clean, healthy, and abundant with life. It has made leaps and bounds now that chemicals, septic and toxic runoff is a lesser concern. The river flows clean and allows for anadromous fish to swim the upper reaches of the Penobscot due to the river restoration. The river from Medway down to Old Town holds primarily Smallmouth Bass.

The smallmouth is a wild, invasive species and since it is here I do embrace

“July Fishing” by Rich Yvon.

July’s temps in and out of caddis fly. In addition, the the water are wonderful for green sedge, which hatches catching that trout, salmon, through July is also favoror bass. ite for trout and salmon. A Starting the very first very popular fishery is the week of July in our ponds Penobscot, West Branch and lakes is our beloved River. Mayflies and cadHex hatch or Hexage- disflies seem to dominate nia limbate. This hatch the scene along with golden is one huge mayfly that stones and of course the comes from the nymph midge. This month is also and directly to the adult as a big month for terresit emerges from the film of trials such as grasshopthe water. It’s truly a wonderful miracle to watch.

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in the northern zone” is certainly a great step forward! The Penobscot restoration efforts have taken impoundments and have transformed them back to a free-flowing current.

Fish such as Shad, Striped Bass, and Atlantic Salmon are certainly making a comeback. Additionally,

by Rich Yvon, Bradford, ME fishes like blueback herring, eel, and sea lamprey have replaced slack water fishes like golden shiner and smallmouth bass. The sea lamprey is also considered an indicator species.

This fish feeds primarily on the bottom, so it stands to reason that its very existence reveals a clean river!

Our river is evolving as a positive change for overall wellness comes back to our water. I’m super excited and have faith that provides me hope, of a better life for all future generations.

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Northwoods Sporting Journal

Page 26

Ramblings From T8-R9

by Benjamin Rioux, Millinocket Lake

By Scott Story Over the last few years we’ve made a substantial investment in our infrastructure to accommodate seaplane aviation here at Libby Camps. Our

The Kenmore Dock will accommodate three seaplanes. Two other single docks on the camp’s east shore will give us docking for a total of five planes out back. Add in a couple

“More than just a dock for our workhorse 185” front dock has been and continues to be our main point of arrivals and departures with our Cessna 185 as we fly our guests to and from remote fishing locations. The front dock also serves as our fueling dock. Out back on the east side of the camp in front of Grey Ghost and Skyhawk, is the Kenmore Dock, a three dock unit separated by attached walkways.

of new ramps out here and we can pretty much accommodate a small air force of seaplanes. We frequently have three or four planes here most of the time with our 185, my Husky, Matt P’s 172 and another 185 that stays here for the summer.

This past year we had that small air force a time or two and had some pretty good-sized aircraft come in

July 2021

Libby Camps Seaplane Base

for a visit. An amphibian Caravan even found it’s way to our Kenmore Dock a couple of times. Probably one of our biggest treats was the arrival of a Dehaviland Beaver. Any pilot will tell you that the sound of that big radial engine is something that you just don’t hear in modern aircraft. Many aircraft beyond our own came and went on a daily basis here. Katahdin Air flew in and out numerous guests as did Penobscot Island Air. On that note, Libby Camps wishes to extend our condolences to the Penobscot Island Air family on their loss of owner Kevin Waters. I personally worked for Kevin for a few years and both Matts knew him as well. His contribution to aviation in Maine is legendary and you will never meet a man with a bigger heart.

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Scott Story’s Husky at the dock

Topping off the 185.

Scotty Story at the controls.

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July 2021

Age

(Cont. from pg 20) which will be most of the time, my size 15 wading boots will only aggravate the problem.

So my search continued. I then ran across what I thought was the perfect boat: A Native Watercraft 14.5 Ultimate Solo. I love hybrid boats, it’s what endears me to my Mad River Synergy. Half canoe, half SOT, and mostly useful.

And the Native boat was light. Then I found out they quit making them and I can’t find a used one this side of the continental divide. Native does still make a 12’ version, and I may have to go there, but I really wanted to keep to a 14’ length.

Back on the hunt, I ran into another Old Town boat: the NEXT. At 13’ it’s longer than the Discovery, has fewer bells and whistles, … and costs more. Go figure.

The whole clown foot/bow thwart thing might still be an issue, but at least the NEXT has a much smaller, traditional bow thwart so it might work. I can’t find one to sit in so I can’t make any determination yet. Apparently Old Town has discontinued this boat, too. *sigh* …and the beat goes on.

So now I’m starting to look at inflatables. Just a mere hour ago I would have laughed in your face had you suggested such a boat to me. Now…, they’re looking better by the minute. I found a boat made by Aquaglide called the Blackfoot Angler 130. Hard floor you can stand up in, looked to have reasonable initial stability as well as secondary stability, awesome seat, and at 40 lbs, it was perfect.

A little weird looking for a

Northwoods Sporting Journal pseudo-traditionalist such as myself, but hey, times change, you know?

I emailed the company, only to be told that the production run is sold out. Who didn’t see that one coming? Ray Charles and Kermit the Frog were right; ‘it ain’t easy being green’. It won’t help me this summer, but I’m seriously thinking that building

out one of Gil’s 14’ solo strip canoes is the project that keeps me busy this winter.

Mike Maynard is a part-time farmer, grandfather of several, and a hopelessly water-logged stream rat. He lives in the woods of Perham, Maine and can be reached at perhamtrout@ gmail.com

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Northwoods Sporting Journal

Page 28

Tips for Stripers

Fly Fishing

by Joe Bertolaccini, Orrington, ME With water temperatures beginning to heat up, fishing for striped bass in July can be an excellent angling alternative. After

England coast.

Fly fishing for them can be done in the surf off sandy beaches or rocky coastline areas, and major

tered along the coast can also provide good striper fishing, especially for the smaller “schoolies” in the 18 to 24 inch range.

Many experienced anglers will say they have had the most success at night or just before daybreak. When

Many experienced anglers will say they have had the most success at night or just before daybreak. When fishing flowing waters, position of the tides as well as light conditions determine the most productive times. spawning in the Hudson River and Chesapeake Bay tributaries, striped bass migrate north to eastern and Canadian waters to feed beginning in mid May and can stay as late as November off the southern New

river systems such as the Merrimack in Massachusetts, the Kennebec and Penobscot Rivers in Maine, and as far north and east as the Miramichi River in New Brunswick. The smaller tidal estuaries scat-

fishing flowing waters, position of the tides as well as light conditions determine the most productive times.

Optimum conditions would include being on the water one hour before high tide to about three hours after

high tide on a cloudy day.

Places to fish include inlets and outlets of estuaries and salt water ponds, sand and gravel bars, breakwaters, jetties and around islands.

In the surf I have seen fishermen hook stripers less than 40 feet from shore at Popham Beach where breaking waves were only two feet deep on the outgoing tide. When fishing over shallow clam flats or mussel beds, dead low tide is generally the most productive. Since stripers are easily spooked in shallow water, casts of 50 to 60 feet or more are necessary.

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July 2021

ing the boat. Being able to cast 80 feet or more with a minimum of false casts would have significantly improved our catch. However after casting heavy rods for several hours at a time, arms get tired and you begin to lose the rhythm and coordination that are necessary.

Two points that I have to constantly keep in mind are to wait for the line to completely straighten on the back cast and to keep my upper arm close to my side to provide additional power from my upper body. For tackle, I would recommend a nine foot, nine or ten weight fly rod with a clear or light colored intermediate weight line for shore and surf fishing, and a full sinking line for fishing deeper water from a boat. Leaders can be seven to nine feet long tapering to a 12 or 15 pound test tippet depending on the situation.

Guides I have fished with on the Kennebec and New Meadows Rivers use a loop knot to attach the fly.

When using heavy tippets, a loop allows the fly to move freely and with more action than if it were attached directly to the leader with an improved clinch or Turle knot. The Homer Rhode loop knot, being suitable for this purpose, is tied as follows.

Make a loose overhand knot in the leader leaving a tag end of four or five inches to pass through the hook eye. Bring the tag end back through the loop formed by the overhand knot. Tie another overhand knot above the first around the standing leader and adjust for the size of the desired loop. Finally (Tips cont. pg 29)

July 2021

Tips (Cont. from pg 28) moisten, pull tight and clip excess forming a loop of about two inches. This knot can also be used to troll flies for other gamefish such as landlocked salmon or togue.

Following are several striper patterns that have been productive over the years.

Mackerel Deceiver Hook – Size 1 to 3/0, standard saltwater.

Thread – White Flymaster Plus or equivalent.

Tail – Two medium green saddle hackles flanked by two natural grizzly hackles, all about twice the hook length.

Body – Pearl braided tinsel.

Throat – White bucktail extending to beyond the hook bend.

Wing - Green bucktail extending to just past the bend.

Head – White thread with black painted or stickon eyes and well lacquered or epoxied.

Soft-hackle Deceiver Hook – Size 1 to 3/0, standard saltwater.

Thread – White Flymaster Plus or equivalent.

Northwoods Sporting Journal

Tail – Four white saddle hackles about twice the hook length.

Body (optional) – Silver braided tinsel.

Wi n g – S e v e r a l strands of pearl Crystal Flash extending to at least the midpoint of the tail around which is an olive marabou blood feather wound several turns as a collar.

Collar – Several turns of a mallard flank feather.

Head – White thread with black painted or stickon eyes and lacquered or epoxied.

Clouser Minnow Hook – Size 1 to 3/0, standard salt water.

Thread – White Flymaster Plus or equivalent.

Eyes – 3/16-inch diameter, weighted barbell eyes with black pupils tied on top of hook with figure eight windings sufficiently behind the eye to allow for a finished head. Coat with clear epoxy and let dry before finishing the fly.

Throat – White bucktail, extending to at least the bend, tied down on top of hook both in front of and behind the eyes.

Wing - Chartreuse or white bucktail tied on underside of hook in front of eyes extend back to about twice the hook length, over gold or silver Flashabou.

Head – White thread with two coats of epoxy.

Half and Half (Half Clouser and half Deceiver)

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– Same as above except that four saddle hackles, splayed out, are tied in at the bend of the hook.

Clouser Crab Hook – Size 1 to 3/0, standard salt water.

Thread – Brown Flymaster Plus or equivalent.

Eyes – Same as Clouser Minnow.

Tail – Sparse gold Flashabou flanked by four brown hackle tips splayed out.

Body – Alternating pieces of brown and beige yarn tied across and underneath the hook and trimmed to shape.

Head – Brown thread with two coats of epoxy.

Squid Hook- Size 1 to 3/0 standard salt water.

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Page 29 Thread – White Flymaster Plus or equivalent Tail - Sparse black bucktail over which is green Crystal Flash equal to the hook length over which is white marabou about equal to ½ the hook length.

Eyes - Pieces of 50# test mono tied along sides of the hook with the ends heated to form small ball eyes, colored black with a permanent marker and slightly splayed out near the base of the tail.

Body - Pearl crystal chenille.

Head - White thread.

Coat head and crystal chenille generously with head cement.

Several good references for striper fly fishing include: Striper Strategies

by Jack Gartside, Sight Fishing for Striped Bass

by Alan Caolo, and L.L. Bean’s Fly-Fishing for Striped Bass Handbook by Brad Burns.

Joe has enjoyed fly fishing for over 65 years.

His book, Fundamentals of Fly Fishing, is now available. He can be reached at: brewerberts@aol.com

Page 30

Northwoods Sporting Journal

South Of the Kennebec

by Stu Bristol, Lyman, ME

“The place I’m taking you today,” I told my fishing buddy, Dick Pinney, from Greenland, New Hampshire “is like one of those television shows where you see a guy flycasting in pristine waters, and the water boils with feeding fish. Then, the camera pans to an overhead view and you realize the angler is standing in the middle of Central Park.”

Well, maybe the section of the lower Saco River we fished that day is not quite that dramatic a contrast, but just a few miles to the east is the heart of southern Maine’s tourist playground, Old Orchard Beach. To the north, Portland and the Maine Mall shopping complex of stores and restaurants that, com-

bined, rival a small city.

The Saco River flows out of New Hampshire’s White Mountains, through North Conway, where it enters Maine and drops gently across southern Maine through rolling hills and farmland to Biddeford/ Saco where the last few miles is affected by the rise and fall of the tide.

The coastal fishing is prime from May through

Saco River Wild

active during very low-light periods and hang only in the deeper pools.

“There is only one set of rapids in this section of river, and, as you will see, it’s not much of Pee Wee Grenier of a rapids.” I told Biddeford with Saco Dick. Even novice River smallmouth. canoeists can eas(Photo by Stu Bristol) ily navigate the Cataract Dam in Bidd- fast water that cascades eford to the Skelton Dam down over a broad set of in Buxton) anglers enjoy ledges with a deeper chanoutstanding smallmouth, nel on the East shoreline. brown trout, and shad.

“When we come back

July 2021

developed.”

Motoring upstream, passing under the Route 5 highway bridge I pointed out the car-topper launch site on the east shore, with enough room to park half a dozen vehicles.

“This is a great halfday float-tubing put-in or take-out.” I noted. You can have someone drop you off at the Skelton Dam upstream and fish down to here or put in here and have someone pick you up at Rotary Park” I explained.

The Skelton Dam is located just off Route 5 on

The coastal fishing is prime from May through September. Within a half hour drive there are over 500 miles of rocky shoreline to cast for striped bass, bluefish and mackerel.

September. Within a half hour drive there are over 500 miles of rocky shoreline to cast for striped bass, bluefish and mackerel.

In the section of the Saco we mapped out for a day’s outing, (above the

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The best launch site is located at Biddeford’s Rotary Park, situated on the West side of the City, off South Street. Another is on the Saco side, just off Lincoln Street.

This section of river seldom reaches a depth of over 15 feet mid-channel with a few corners that exceed 25 feet in depth.

Shad anglers need to seek out those deep river bends early in the morning before the sun rises to hit the water. Shad seem only to be

down, pay attention to those pockets of water along that shoreline. I’ve taken some nice smallmouths and brown trout in those.”

“The Saco River Commission has done a great job in stopping shoreline development.” I noted as we wound through lush farmland with only an occasional farmstead and a couple of riverside cottages. “There’s a greenway of 500 feet on either side of the river that can’t be

the Dayton/Buxton line.

On the upstream side of the dam is a modern cement ramp for boat of small to medium size and the headpool of the dam holds great smallmouth and brown trout opportunities as well.

“Time to get out and walk.” I said as we tied the boat to a shoreline tree and, dressed in shorts and wearing sandals we prepared to fly-cast for brown trout in the shallow gravel riffles about fifty yards below the (River cont. pg 35)

July 2021

Northwoods Sporting Journal

Rapid River Virgin

It has been called THE premier eastern brook trout fishery in the United States. “The Rapid is perhaps the best river in the United States to catch 3- to 5-pound brook trout, and it is also considered one of the top rivers in Maine to fish for landlocked Atlantic salmon that average from 16 to 18 inches but can be as big as 5 pounds.” Dan Shirley – from the column Rapid River Primer on Flyfisherman.com on August 28th, 2014.

For hard core, moving water, fly fishing only trout fishermen – this place is Mecca and The Church of the holy Sepulchre all in one. It is the steepest dropping river east of the Mississippi (40 feet per mile). It’s no trickle, but a tumbling roil of cold, clean water that begins at “middle dam” on Richardson Lake (near Rangeley) and careens swiftly towards the New Hampshire boarder, pouring into Umbagog Lake.

Fishing the Rapid has been on the bucket list for a while. A couple of weeks ago I got the chance. Getting to the water is no small feat. 13 miles of dirt road of off Route 16 brings you to a gate. The rest of the way you are on foot or even better, a mountain bike. I chose the latter. From the gate, it’s a short ride down the hill to Middle Dam, there is a big pool at the dam, then a mile or so of steep drops and pocket water until you get to pond in the river, a big, slow moving “dead water” roughly between middle dam and Umbagog Lake.

I made the trip with my brother who had fished the Rapid last year. On

his first experience, being on foot, he never made it below Pond in the River.

With mountain bikes making the lower part of the river more accessable, we decided to focus our time there. Our first stop was cold spring pool, just below lower dam and a group of

down the river to the last big pool before the rapid flows into Umbagog lake, smooth ledge pool.

We spent the rest of the day and into evening here. It’s a beautiful spot with so many little features to fish, you can spend all day working the water.

Page 31

Post-Script From Pocasset

by Josh Reynolds, Wayne, ME

and keeping any trout on a place one could spend the Rapid is strictly verbo- hundreds of hours explorten, killing smallmouths ing. If you go, expect to see is encouraged as they are some very big trout...and invasive and threaten this work really hard trying to iconic brook trout fishery. catch one.

For hard core, moving water, fly Fishing the Rapid was fishing only trout fishermen – this place a humbling experience and is Mecca and The Church of the holy Josh Reynolds is the a significant challenge. I Sepulchre all in one. can’t wait to go back, I Assistant Editor of The “turn of the century” camps After a few hours of trial, hardly scratched the sur- Journal. He can be reached along the shores of the things began to turn on a face of what is here. It is at jreyn207@gmail.com river. The rapids just above bit in the early evening. I the pool tumble into a deep hooked up to a nice fish pocket beside a mammoth that was feeding on the piece of granite, it’s a great surface in the middle of place to fish. We tried a the flow. A dead drifted #18 host of offerings – beaded blue winged olive brought 195 Thatcher St. Suite 2 wool buggers with emerger him in…almost to my net.

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Page 32

Northwoods Sporting Journal

My First Deer

The Buck Hunter

by Hal Blood, Moose River, ME Summer becomes the time for fishing, barbeques and camping. Deer hunting gets put in the back for the time being. It’s what I call the summer doldrums.

In the north country, the winters are long, and the summers are short, so we need to enjoy them while

on hunting. When I turned ten, my father gave me his Winchester model 94, 3030 to carry into the woods.

Again, I think I probably only got to go once or twice a year, as my father always worked two jobs and he didn’t have a lot of time to hunt. Now when I was 12

got to the top of the ridge, my father told me to sit and watch down one side of the ridge and he walked over about 30 yards to where he could watch down the other side. Yes, he had his rifle even though he was tagged out! Back then it seemed like standard procedure. I had no more than sat down, before I decided that I had better pee. I stood back up, went pee and as I was putting my gloves back on, I

As I started towards the deer to finish it off, I heard my father hollering as he came running toward me. I remember hollering back, I got him, I got him! we can. Deer season will be here before we know it and we will be taking to the woods in search of the elusive whitetail. Until then, enjoy the summer! I thought this month I would go back in time and tell the story of the first deer. It as been over fifty years, so I guess the statute of limitations has run out and I can tell it in its entirety.

I was fortunate to have a father that took me deer hunting when I was young and carried a toy gun with me. I remember these excursions to this day and in reality, I probably only went one time per year, but it was enough to hook me

years old in 1969, I waited on my chance to go deer hunting again. My father had gone down to the relatives hunting lodge down east on a Saturday and had shot his deer. Now I knew that I should get a chance to go before the season was over.

I was excited when he told me we could go, that next Saturday. At the time we were living in Portland and we had a camp on Bonnie Eagle pond in Buxton.

I was overwhelmed with excitement on the drive to camp early that Saturday morning. We walked into a hemlock ridge just as dawn was approaching. When we

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saw a flash of white about a hundred yards away down the ridge.

I grabbed my rifle that was leaning against a tree and stood there watching.

I soon saw another flash of white and could see that it was a deer bounding toward me. The deer stopped behind a small hemlock with its body hidden except for the hindquarter. Back then you could shoot any deer, so I wasn’t looking for antlers. My father had told me not to shoot a deer in the hindquarter, so I waited. The deer took a few more bounds toward me and stopped again at about thirty yards. My gun was already on my shoulder with the hammer back, and

I put the bead on its chest and pulled the trigger. The deer dropped in its tracks.

As I started towards the deer to finish it off, I heard my father hollering as he came running toward me. I remember hollering back, I got him, I got him!

I gave my deer a finishing shot to the neck just as my father got to me. I think my father was in utter disbelief. He told me that he thought I had shot myself. He said that he had just lit a cigarette when I shot and almost swallowed it! I think my father was as excited as I was. The deer was a nice fat spikehorn which made it extra special. After all the back slapping congratulations, my father said to get my license out so we could put the tag on him. I said, I didn’t have my license, I thought that he had it, his face dropped!

He thought that my mother must have got my license.

He went from excited to as nervous as a cut cat! As he gutted out the buck, I bet he looked over his shoulder ten times.

My father’s buddy Warren had come up to hunt with us so my father said we needed to find him so he could put his tag on the buck for now. Somehow, he found Warren and they went to get the car. My

July 2021

father had a 1960 Pontiac Ventura and he drove that car down an old wood road that most people wouldn’t have taken a pick-up down, for about a half mile. Warren put his tag on my buck and the 2 of them dragged the buck to the car. We drove back to camp and my father called my mother to get me a hunting license.

Remember, we lived in Portland, so my mother had to drive to city hall to get it. Somehow, she talked the clerk into backdating it one day. Then my mother drove the 25 miles to camp to bring it to us. It wasn’t until then that my father finally calmed down. I think he thought he would go to jail if a Game Warden showed up!

Back in those days, there were not many deer in southern Maine, so just shooting any deer was a big deal. I think my father was just as happy about my first deer as I was. My father passed away many years ago, and with 50 years gone by, I’m still hope the law doesn’t come looking for me!

Hal is a Master Maine Guide and author. He lives in Moose River Maine with his wife Deb and can be contacted through email at: hal@bigwoodsbucks.com

July 2021

Northwoods Sporting Journal

Shooting Industry News

There have been lots of changes in the shooting industry in the last year, so I thought I would highlight some of them. The biggest news has been Remington declaring bankruptcy for the second time in as many years. This time, the courts sold off the pieces, of which there were many,

basis. This should help the ammo availability significantly.

Remington firearms and the Ilion NY Manufacturing facility were purchased by an investment company called U.S. Roundhill Investments.

They are up and running calling back about 200 of

The Marlin assets and trademarks have been purchased by Sturm, Ruger Company. They have stated that they will have some of the Marlin models available by the end of 2021. The first models produced will be the iconic 336, the 1894 and 1895.

They will be manufactured in North Carolina. I very much look forward to seeing and shooting the new Marlins by Ruger.

In a disappointing announcement, Smith &

Page 33

Guns & Ammo: A Guide’s Perspective

by Tom Kelly, Orient, ME the other instances, it is investment companies buying gun and ammo companies that sometimes results in management chasing $$$$ instead of servicing the consumer with innovative, quality products. I guess we will have to wait and see.

In the meantime, don’t forget to take a youngster

owner/operator of Shamrock Outfitters in Orient Maine with his wife Ellie.

He is a retired police officer as well as a retired manager from two major firearms manufacturers.

He is an NRA Certified Instructor as well as a Hunter Safety Instructor in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. You can reach

Jason Vanderbrink, the president of the new Remington ammunition company, says that they are up and running in their Arkansas plant on a 24/7 basis. This should help the ammo availability significantly.

Ruger buying out Marlin firearms could be a good thing. to interested parties. Rem- the 800 original employees. ington, in addition to be- The first of the models to ing the largest and oldest be manufactured will be firearms company, was the Model 870 pump action also the largest ammunition shotgun. I have not heard manufacturer. what additional models When the bankruptcy will follow. I also am not was announced, all pro- sure what the guns will be duction stopped. The good called as they no longer news for those of us starv- own the Remington name. ing for ammunition is that The quality of the an investment group called various products produced Vista Outdoors purchased by the company known as the ammunition business, Big Green (Remington) has as well as the rights to the declined in recent years.

Remington brand name.

The lawsuits leveled at Jason Vanderbrink, the company contributed the president of the new to the multiple bankruptRemington ammunition cies. Hopefully, Roundhill company, says that they investments can do better. are up and running in their Remington also Arkansas plant on a 24/7 owned Marlin firearms.

Wesson has announced the Thompson Center brand name is for sale, no assets, just the name. In the same announcement, Smith & Wesson stated that the Thompson Center products would no longer be manufactured by Smith &Wesson. Thompson Center was founded in 1965 with a manufacturing plant in Rochester, NH. Smith & Wesson purchased TC in 2007. In 2010, they closed the Rochester plant and moved the machinery to the Springfield, Massachusetts facility.

Most of the employees were let go. I don’t believe Smith & Wesson ever got what they thought they were going to get from TC. As a result, they sucked the marrow from the TC bones and are selling the name of a once good gun manufacturer.

In all of these changes, I am most optimistic about Ruger buying Marlin. This optimism comes from the fact that gun people are buying a gun company. In

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Northwoods Sporting Journal

July 2021

The Maine The St. John Trip Woods the deadwater for a break fect day for canoeing. It flowing river without large Matt LaRoche, Shirley, ME

I had been wanting to canoe the St. John River for several years and this year I finally did it. This year I had the time and opportunity and was able to take advantage of it. This river trip went through one of the wildest areas in the

feet wide. The river was quite lively for the first 7 or 8 miles with almost continuous class I and mild class II rapids. With the help of the current, we made the nine miles to our first campsite at Flaws Bogan in about three hours.

Our excursion started at Baker Lake, where the river was only about 100 feet wide. The river was quite lively for the first 7 or 8 miles with almost continuous class I and mild class II rapids. eastern United States. I was not disappointed and would recommend this trip to any experienced paddler.

My brother-in-law, Russell and I met our canoeing partners Alan and Bob Johnston at Priestly Bridge early Thursday morning. Our outfitter, Pelletier’s Campground was waiting for us when we got there. We loaded canoes and gear in/on the van and left our vehicles at the bridge. We then sat back and enjoyed the ride to Baker Lake.

Our excursion started at Baker Lake, where the river was only about 100

There is a log cabin open to the public at this location.

Alan and I stayed in the camp while Russell and Bob opted to pitch tents for the night.

The cabin proved to be a good choice, because the water in the water pail skimmed over during the night. After a hearty breakfast of sausage, eggs and plenty of coffee, we were back on the river before 7:30 a.m. Below Flaws Bogan the river was mostly deadwater for about four miles until it joined the Southwest Branch. We stopped at the remnants of an old log landing on

where we caught a glimpse of a coyote.

The river changed at the confluence of the Southwest Branch. It almost doubled in width and picked up speed again. The wind blew up the river for the remainder of the day and we labored even with the current helping us. We paddled another deadwater and mostly slow-moving water until the Northwest Branch joined the river.

The river picked up speed again after converging with the Northwest Branch. This was a welcome relief as we were all getting a little arm weary from paddling against the wind all afternoon.

We arrived at Ledge Rapids Campsite in the mid-afternoon after paddling 23-miles. We set up on the campsite that overlooks the rapids with a ledge that ran about halfway across the river. After a supper of steak, potatoes, coleslaw and corn bread (cooked in my reflector oven). We all went to bed early that night with the sound of the rapids lulling us to sleep.

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was a bright sunny and calm day, the river had good current with easy rapids, we stopped at historic Nine Mile Bridge and the

headwater lakes. It is therefore generally only canoeable during the month of May and after heavy rain events during the summer.

The steam shovel was used to build the Eagle Lake and West Branch Railroad. It was used at Nine Mile Bridge after use on the railroad. You can see that the wheels were made to fit on the tracks. (Photos by Russell Scott.) water level was just about On our trip the water flow right. After an easy 24- mile was 5300 cfs in Dicky paddle, we made camp at when we started the jourSeven Islands overlooking ney and 4000 cfs when we the gently flowing river, ended our trip. The water which was now at least a level was dropping about half mile wide.

3-inches a night. Had we Seven Islands was continued further downthe location of the largest river, we would have been settlement on the Upper dragging over sandbars by St. John River. In 1875, the time we got to the Town records show that Frank of Allagash.

Currier sold $3,000 worth For information about of hay, grain, beef and other the St. John River conitems from Seven Islands. tact North Maine Woods W.H. Cunliffe and Stevens at 207-435-6213 or by had 56-cattle, 100-sheep, email at: www.northmaine7-horses and a dozen hogs woods.org on their farm at Seven Islands.

The next morning, Matt LaRoche is a we broke camp and pad- retired Superintendent of dled three miles to Priestly the Allagash Wilderness Bridge where our vehicles Waterway, owner of Maine were located. It was an- Woods Guide Service and other perfect day and I wish an avid outdoorsman. He we could have paddled can be reached at 207further down river- but 695-2877 or at matt.lathat will have to wait for roche2877@gmail.com another year!

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July 2021

River

(Cont. from pg 30) dam.

Yes, Dick out-fished me, but to this day I insist it was the polite thing to do; like letting your boss win at golf. He was using smaller flies and him being one of the better fly-tiers in the northeast.

The Saco River has a viable brown trout fishery but anglers need to pay close attention due to the aggressive Atlantic salmon stocking program. About 15 years ago, a local group of salmon anglers formed the Saco River Salmon Club and gained national recognition as the first private group ever to build and operate an Atlantic salmon swim-up fry hatchery.

Both bass and browns will be swimming in the deeper water and keeping

Northwoods Sporting Journal a sharp eye out for food being washed downstream in that first two feet of shoreline water. A numberone popping cork on a wide gap hook works great. I tie a couple of drake feathers on the bend of the hook.

The fly angler has the advantage in the Saco because of the wide variety of food sources. Spin anglers should be successful with leech or crayfish lures.

My most productive spinning lure is the 1/8 ounce lead-head jig dressed with a 3-inch flip-tail grub in pumpkin, brown or black.

1/16-ounce Roadrunners are also a great producer in the Saco, for smallmouth and browns.

The fly guys will make out with any of the minnow imitations, or flies such as the Olive Matuka and the black Woolybugger. Later in the year, right

into September the attractor flies and terrestrials will out-fish anything else.

Of course, before the day was done I began calling Dick, “Murphy” as he boated bass and brown trout using popping bugs, on the surface when I told him the fish would be deep.

I gave up telling him, “you probably won’t have much

Page 35

luck there” pointing out favorite holes that I deemed to be too bright or too hot on the day we fished. As most readers have learned for themselves, the best way to give your fishing buddy all the luck is to predict what won’t happen.

er, Master Maine Guide (Orion Guide Service) and Outdoor writer. His books, newspaper and magazine articles have been published nationwide for more than 50 years. He operates Deadly Imposter Game Calls in southern Maine. www.deadlyimpostergameStu Bristol is Hall of calls.com Fame wild turkey huntAcross 1 Thorny tree sounds like it should be an insect 6 Piscataquis County longnose sucker source 7 Type of fishing 8 Snowshoe --9 Northern Black --12 Could be Sedge or Carolina 14 River attracting canoeists SW of Portland 15 Aroostock County river 16 Joe-Pye ---

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Northwoods Sporting Journal

View From The River

July 2021

Borer Imperils Maine Ash

by Laurie Chandler Bremen, ME My first glimpse of an Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) came many years ago at the Common Ground Fair in Unity, Maine. After enjoying the sheep dog demonstrations and some foot stomping bluegrass, I wandered into the tent of the

Ash thrives in wetlands and is an integral part of the river community. Among the birch and maple stand the straight ridged trunks of ash. Their compound leaves, with 5 to 11 leaflets, form a graceful green canopy above. Their

Our ash trees, I learned, were in grave danger. EAB, an Asian native, was discovered in Michigan in 2002. Over the years, the invader spread rapidly.

Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance. I left with a wallet sized card depicting a sleek, half-inch-long, metallic green beetle, striking in appearance.

Our ash trees, I learned, were in grave danger. EAB, an Asian native, was discovered in Michigan in 2002. Over the years, the invader spread rapidly. The beetle attacked only ash, tunneling beneath the bark and cutting off the vital flow of water and nutrients. Infested trees often died within three to five years. The ash species of our northern forests— white ash, green ash, and black or brown ash—were all vulnerable.

winged seeds—called samaras—hang in clusters like long thin teardrops.

Ash is an elegant tree whose loss would forever change our forests.

On that long-ago September afternoon at the fair, EAB was not present anywhere in New England.

But it was coming. In 2012, it reached Massachusetts and Connecticut. By early spring 2018, Maine stood like an island, surrounded by infestations in New Hampshire, Vermont, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. By then, more than a billion North American ash trees had died.

Within months, EAB was discovered in Aroostook

Credit: Greg Miller, Maine Forest Service, using USDA and CFIA data.

County, then York County, tribes, ash is a cultural expression. Their creativity at both ends of the state. keystone species and an and resiliency bring hope, According to the irreplaceable natural re- even as EAB continues to Maine Forest Service, ash source that lies at the heart advance. trees comprise four percent of their creation story. The State entomologists of the state’s hardwood for- basketmakers of the Wa- are battling the Emerald ests. Their value, though, banaki Confederacy Pas- Ash Borer on several fronts. goes beyond statistics. Ash samaquoddy, Penobscot, Four tiny non-stinging paris critical to wetland hy- Mi’kmaq, and Maliseet asitic wasps show promise drology and is an important have historically worked in controlling the EAB wildlife food source. Com- primarily with sweetgrass population by killing the mercially, the harvesting of and brown ash. The clas- eggs and larvae and giving ash generates $320 million sic canoe pack basket, for hope to a new generation in annual income for forest example, is woven from of ash. An ongoing citizen landowners. Maine busi- brown ash splints shaped science program teaches nesses manufacture white around a wooden form. volunteers to monitor for ash tool handles, dowels, Today, the craft is evolving. the beetle using trap trees baseball bats, furniture, ice Wabanaki artisans are in- which attract EAB already fishing traps, snowshoes, corporating new materials present in the area. In late and canoe paddles. and designs, blending tradi- spring, a healthy ash tree For the Wabanaki tion with individual artistic is girdled by removing a wide strip of bark around the trunk. The stressed tree produces chemicals that attract the beetles. The following autumn, the tree is cut down and searched for signs of EAB. Growing public Join a Maine B.A.S.S. NATION Club Today!! awareness has prompted more reports of suspected • Learn how to catch more & bigger bass • Help us keep the Maine Bass fishery worldclass infestations. One sign to • The most active volunteer sportsman organization look for is blonding of in Maine donating thousands of hours and ash trunks. Light colored contributions to charity each year patches indicate woodCheck us out at www.mebass.com (Ash cont. pg 39)

July 2021

News

(Cont. from pg 14) of New Hampshire’s managed trout ponds starting on the fourth Saturday in April, and this year’s opening day was April 24. These waters include designated trout ponds, fly-fishing-only ponds, and ponds managed under the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department’s Wild Trout Program. The ponds managed under wild trout regulations are open only through Labor Day, while the waterbodies managed for other trout species close on October 15. These waters are managed specifically for trout and offer anglers the chance to experience exciting fishing in some of the Granite State’s most scenic surroundings.

Ponds managed for trout may be stocked with one or more species, including brook, rainbow, and brown trout at various age classes.

“These trout ponds are often the best waters in a given area for a variety of reasons,” said New Hampshire Fish and Game Department Fisheries Biologist Dianne Timmins.

“Excellent habitat, limited species predation, low angling competition, and the fact that these ponds are closed to ice fishing allow

Northwoods Sporting Journal larger fish to grow that challenge the trout fishing enthusiast. Low water conditions last year did not affect pond conditions, so we are expecting some great fish to be had out there!”

Clough Pond in Loudon, French Pond in Henniker, Lucas Pond in Northwood, Mount William Pond in Weare, Dublin Lake in Dublin, Barbadoes Pond in Madbury, Mountain Pond in Brookfield and Airport Pond in Whitefield are a few of the generously stocked early-season hotspots where opening day trout are often taken. Changes in stocking, made in 2021, have only increased opportunities in these locations, as well as others throughout the state.

Many popular ponds are found from the Lakes Region north to Pitts-

burg. They include Little Diamond Pond in Stewartstown, Echo Lake in Franconia, Mirror Lake in Whitefield, Russell Pond in Woodstock, Conner Pond and Duncan Lake in Ossipee, White Lake in Tamworth, Perch Pond in Campton, Saltmarsh Pond in Gilford, and Spectacle Pond in Groton.

Anglers looking for a true wilderness experience will enjoy visiting one of the nearly 50 remote trout ponds that Fish and Game annually stocks with fingerling brook trout via helicopter and backpack hike ins. These are listed at http://www.fishnh.com/ fishing/trout-aerial.html.

Flat Mountain Pond in Sandwich, Cole Pond in Enfield (fly fishing only), Butterfield Pond in Wilmot, Sawyer Pond in Liver-

Page 37

more, and Black Pond and Lonesome Lake in Lincoln are just a sampling of these delightful ponds, where fingerling brook trout can often measure over eight inches by their second growing season.

in Sandwich, Sky Pond in New Hampton, and Profile Lake in Franconia, which now also has an ADA-accessible casting platform.

Check the New Hampshire Freshwater Fishing Digest for special regulations on these waters at http:// www.fishnh.com. In addition, White Pond in Ossipee and Coon Brook Bog in Pittsburg offer excellent opportunities to “match the hatch” throughout spring and early summer.

“Trout are prized by anglers because fishing for them is one of the traditional rites of spring, and they are beautiful,” Timmins said. “Whether your passion is the bluehaloed brook trout, a leaping, pink-striped rainbow, or the determined fight of a brown, there’s a trout (News cont. pg 47)

Archery Pond in Allenstown, which has a ADA-accessible casting platform, and Stonehouse Pond in Barrington are two popular fly-fishingonly ponds that will be well stocked for opening day.

Further north, some excellent fly-fishing-only ponds include Upper Hall Pond

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Northwoods Sporting Journal

Page 38

Swallows: Birds of Summer

The Bird Perch

by Karen Holmes, Cooper, ME I enjoy the swallows, those graceful birds of summer. They swoop, glide, and pivot in the air while chasing and consuming small insects. They spend so much time in the skies. The first species of swallow that returns here in Downeast Maine are the Tree Swallows.

They wintered along the Gulf of Mexico and the southern Atlantic states.

are colorful with iridescent greenish-blue feathers on their backs and heads, black wings and tails and snow-white undersides.

The ones who have a duller and less sheen to their feathers are the females.

I made sure I cleaned out my nest boxes I have here in Cooper. They are five to eight feet above the ground on posts or trees.

Tree Swallows use

A nesting swallow.

We have some buildings at my home that may also be used by Barn Swallows. They are easy to identify with dark blue upper parts contrasting with orange-brown underparts, reddish orange throats and long forked tails.

This year I saw my first ones catching insects over the waters near the Moosehorn in Baring. It was cold and I know that this species of swallow will also eat berries and seeds when insects are scarce. They

the same size nest box holes as do Eastern Bluebirds. So I may be doubly rewarded with both species using them. I have never seen Bluebirds and Swallows fight over nest boxes. But one way to pre-

vent this is to have more than one nest box setup.

I also have discovered that Tree Swallows are using tree cavities and old woodpecker holes around my home. Tree Swallows love to use white feathers

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in their nests and I always scatter some near their nest building site. I hold my arm up with a feather in my hand sometimes and one will grab it. Every spring I hope we do not have cold and wet weather for several days. This can wreak havoc among all species of swallow chicks because the parents often cannot provide enough insect food and they starve to death.

We have some buildings at my home that may also be used by Barn Swallows. They are easy to identify with dark blue upper parts contrasting with orange-brown underparts, reddish orange throats and long forked tails. Barn Swallows like to build their nests inside barns or sheds, under eaves of houses, bridges or docks. The nests are open cups made up of pellets of dried mud mixed

with grass and lined with feathers. Another species that likes to build nests outside buildings and underneath bridges are Cliff Swallows. They did once use just sheltered sections of cliffs. This species once nested along the side of the old mission in San Juan Capistrano in California.

Cliff Swallows are very sociable birds and several jug-shaped mud nests may be plastered close together like a colony at one site. When my parents had a cottage on Westport Island, Maine, every year pairs of Cliff Swallows would build nests under a roof section. My father wanted to knock them down, but I convinced him that the birds were consuming pesky flies, gnats and mosquitoes and so he left them alone. I have found (Swallows cont. pg 59)

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July 2021

Northwoods Sporting Journal

A Ride on a Bull Moose

This remarkable incident, which occurred at the headwaters of the Allagash River, was written by G. F. C. and published in Forest and Stream on Nov. 16, 1901.

“Mr. Paul Libby, of New York, has recently returned from a two-months trip the Maine wilderness, in which time, in company with is friend Mr. Charles Wake, he traversed nearly one thousand miles in canoes and over carries. This was Mr. Libby’s first trip to the Maine woods, and he is enthusiastic in praise of the country and the opportunities it affords sportsmen.

The party saw a great many deer and moose, counting as many as twenty-five in one day; but, as the

trip was made in the close season, they had content themselves with snapshots of the game and they have a number of exceedingly interesting views.

The most novel incident of the entire trip, and certainly the most exciting, occurred on the morning of Aug. 20, when Mr. Libby, in answer to a “defi” from his guide, leaped from the boat and rode on the back of a bull moose in the waters of Churchill Lake.

The party consisting of Mr. Wake and his guide, in one canoe, and Mr. Libby and his guide in the other, had just paddled into Churchill Lake from Eagle Lake, when Mr. Libby, whose canoe was behind that of Mr. Wake,

saw ahead a bull moose feeding in the shallow waters of the lake. Wishing to obtain a picture, Mr. Wake asked his guide to bring him close to the animal, and the guide cautiously and slowly paddled up to the moose, between it and the mainland, and Mr. Wake got a good picture.

Ash

however, it is critically important not to move firewood. For many years, I always brought my camp wood from home, but now I am a firm believer in the “Buy It Where You Burn It!” philosophy. Following this practice supports the local economy and has a significant impact in slowing the spread of EAB and other destructive forest pests. On its own, EAB cannot travel more than a few miles a year.

Hidden under the bark of firewood, it goes where you

go. Please don’t let it hitch a ride into your favorite wild place.

(Cont. from pg 36) pecker feeding that has exposed the inner bark.

The presence of S-shaped tunnels beneath tree bark, epicormic branching, and crown dieback are other symptoms.

Maine has established an extensive quarantine area where the movement of ash nursery stock, firewood, and ash timber products is prohibited. Even outside the quarantine area,

Page 39

Old Tales from the Maine Woods

by Steve Pinkham Quincy, MA

wager that he could not ride the animal, and Mr. Libby promptly accepted. Both parties went in pursuit of the moose, and getting him between the canoes, in the center of the lake, it was

his brief experience, and Mr. Wade had not had the opportunity of obtaining a picture, so the canoes were again started after the moose, to drive him into the deep water, and

The most novel incident of the entire trip, and certainly the most exciting, occurred on the morning of Aug. 20, when Mr. Libby, in answer to a “defi” from his guide, leaped from the boat and rode on the back of a bull moose in the waters of Churchill Lake.

The moose started to swim across the lake, with Mr. Libby and his guide following closely in their canoe. The guide, intending to have some sport with Mr. Libby, offered to

Laurie Apgar Chandler is the author of Through Woods & Waters, which provides an adventurous look at Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, and Upwards, the story of her 2015 solo thru-paddle of the 740-mile Northern Forest Canoe Trail. For more information or to purchase the books, visit www.laurieachandler.com

now “up to Mr. Libby to make good on his part of the wage. His canoe was paddled close the moose, and Mr. Libby, who is an athlete, jumped from the canoe and landed fairly and squarely on the back of the moose, which becoming frightened, dropped to the bottom of the lake, taking the rider with him.

Both came to the surface simultaneously and the moose promptly made for the shore.

Mr. Libby managed to climb into his canoe, but he was not satisfied with

force him to swim. This time Mr. Libby landed on the back of the animal, nearer the neck, and held on to an ear. He then had the unique experience of riding for some distance on the back a swimming moose, a feat which few men, if any, can claim to have accomplished.

Steve is an avid hiker, paddler and historian, having collected over 26,000 Maine Woods articles to date.

Old Tales of the Maine Woods Steve Pinkham Maine Woods Historian, Author and Storyteller

617-407-0743

steve@oldtalesofthemainewoods.com www.oldtalesofthemainewoods.com

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Page 40

Northwoods Sporting Journal

Maine Tails

By Jonah Paris, Scarborough, ME Fishing for giant bluefin tuna in the Gulf of Maine is an experience like no other. Your eyes will grow weary from staring at balloons. Which bait will be the lucky one - the squid under the pink balloon, or the mackerel under the yellow? As the hours tick

a charter. If you have not seen a boat all day, five will suddenly appear the moment your rod bends. Three will drive way too close to take pictures, nearly running over your line in the process, one will start trolling circles around you, and the last boat will hit

July 2021

“The Bluefin Principle”

surround you, and twentyfive knots of Northeast will slam the boat.

Every tuna trip, whether we return with a fish or not, is memorable.

Although we do everything in our control to eliminate the things that could go wrong, some degree of chaos is inevitable. In this article, and in Part II (next month), I will share a few

Part I

Every tuna trip, whether we return with a fish or not, is memorable. Although we do everything in our control to eliminate the things that could go wrong, some degree of chaos is inevitable.

by, you will start winding dollar bills into the reels hoping to bribe some higher fishy spirit. Eventually, your nightly dreams will consist of a blue background with red scratches resembling horseshoes; you will be “marking” tuna on your subconscious fish finder.

Everything that could possibly go wrong when you finally hook up with a giant bluefin, will go wrong - especially during

“mark” on their GPS, steal your coordinates, and wake you as they blast off to tell their friends.

If you’ve caught four or five sharks during a recent shark charter, you’ll catch six or seven when targeting tuna - but only because sharks prefer expensive fluorocarbon leaders. When you’re fighting a tuna during a calm, sunny day, a violent thunderstorm will magically appear on the radar, lightning will

anecdotes illustrating what I call “The Bluefin Principle.”

Heartbreaker: One day last season we were fishing off Portland. After marking a few fish early, all was quiet on the ledge. Eventually, a wide, thick mark appeared on the machine. “Guys, we are marking a whale,” I announced to our clients, just as a large minke whale surfaced not forty yards off the stern. For the next hour, the playful whale circled the boat, dove underneath, and brushed his white belly against the hull. An adult minke can weigh ten tons and approach thirty-five feet - the same length as the Teazer. A creature this size would have no difficulty capsizing a vessel and becomes a hazard. As the tide shifted, we began marking fish. Our clients were up on the flybridge, so when we hooked up, I started towards the rod. I immediately slipped on haddock slime (our clients had been passing time by jigging haddock) and hit the deck hard. Meanwhile, the fish swam straight for our anchor line and wrapped itself

Pictured here with the “Trashy Tuna” Capt. Pete Morse (left) and the author.

(Photo courtesy of Jonah Paris.) up. We eventually cleared heap of trash would just go the tuna from the anchor under!” No sooner had the and an hour fight ensued words left his mouth than with the clients on the reel. the “trash heap” bobbed With the tired fish now only and the drag started to twenty-five yards away on scream. The tuna instantly the surface, I watched as ran into the anchor line the rod tip bounced back and tangled. Once we got forcefully and the line went him free, an ocean sunfish slack; the hook had pulled. appeared and leisurely I didn’t have the heart to began swimming back and break it to our clients when forth across the line. As they assured me that the the tuna began to tire after tuna was just swimming two hours, the sharks artowards the boat. rived - two porbeagles and The Trashy Tuna: a blue. They rubbed against Several summers back we the main line and swirled were fishing off Saco. The menacingly at the tuna. only things biting were the Meanwhile, I was running greenhead horse flies. To around with a deck brush in get the baits away from the one hand and a gaff in the boat, we had attached an other trying to fend them inflated plastic trash bag off. When the tuna presentto each balloon and used ed a shot, the captain threw the wind to position the the harpoon. I hollered baits. The captain emerged “go down on the drag” to from the wheelhouse and the client on the reel. He roared, “I wish this big (Bluefin cont. pg 41)

July 2021

Northwoods Sporting Journal

Bluefin

Bear

a quick kill and to maximize the blood trail. Proper (Cont. from pg 12) (Cont. from pg 40) preparation and practice of the bait. Set your cell will pay off when that big looked at me puzzled, then phone to silent but keep bruin appears and presents it registered, but it was too it ready for great photo or the perfect shot. late. The main line had video opportunities that snapped shortly after the may occur or to call for Brian Smith is a Re- dart hit the fish. Praying assistance. tired Maine State Police that the dart wouldn’t pull, Practice shooting Detective and NRA Field we hand-over-hand fought your broad heads from an Representative. He re- the fish on the harpoon elevated position and all ceived the Maine Bow- line for twenty minutes. distances that you might hunters Association Larg- Eventually, I secured the have a shot opportuni- est Maine Archery Bear tail rope. The fish weighed ty. Your maximum draw Award in 2008 and 2018 417 pounds. weight for hunting should and awarded Bowhunter of To be continued… be what you can comfort- the Year in 2005 and 2008. ably draw while sitting and He has taken 17 bears with Jonah Paris teaches clad in hunting clothing. bow and arrow and 4 oth- English at a small high Wait for a great broadside ers with a firearm. He can school in Southwestern shot to strive for a double be reached at bowhunter@ Maine. During the summer, lung pass through shot for mgemaine.com Jonah is first mate aboard

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Page 41 girlfriend, Ashley, and beagle, Aurora. Jonah can be reached at jonaheparis@ gmail.com

Page 42

Northwoods Sporting Journal

On The Prowl

by Justin Merrill, Cherryfield, ME Once I started using, I couldn’t turn back – using “trail cameras” that is.

Are you as overwhelmed as I am about the plethora of scouting cameras on the market today? To simplify things I keep it cheap and easy, that way I don’t worry so much about a dishonest hunter getting their

Obviously the expenditure on batteries will go up but well worth it to the dedicated coyote hunter.

Let them keep inventory of how many coyotes are following those deer paths and to give you the cutting edge you need to “bag” those critters.

Most coyote hunters

Most coyote hunters choose grassy or agriculture fields surrounded by woods for their coyote hunts when, in all actuality, the majority of coyotes are hunting and traveling through the forest – not the wide open fields. dirty paws on my cameras. Scouting cameras are multi-purpose tools for the hunter. They can be very beneficial to the coyote hunter just as they are for scouting deer, bear, moose and turkey.

The hunting doesn’t have to stop because all other seasons are over. It really only marks the beginning of coyote hunting season. Keep those spy cameras out year-round.

choose grassy or agriculture fields surrounded by woods for their coyote hunts when, in all actuality, the majority of coyotes are hunting and traveling through the forest – not the wide open fields. Forests are never, completely dense with wall to wall trees. Instead they have the occasional clearing and trails with sparse stands of mixed growth, where coyotes will frequently hunt

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July 2021

Cameras and Coyotes

the snowshoe hare, deer mouse, jumping mouse, voles, moles, shrews, birds, squirrels and any other forest dwelling creature, such as the deer.

The scouting cameras you have had set in place to spy on the big bucks that fed in those deep woods clearings will let you know if any coyotes travel along the same paths. You’ll be able to obtain a time of day the coyotes like to roam through and formulate a game plan for eliminating the “deer nemesis”. This exact tactic had worked for me on a past coyote hunt.

I had about three shooter bucks traveling by my scouting camera that was set up on the edge of a small clearing in deep woods along a river bottom and did get one picture of a coyote before archery season had begun. I’m happy to report that I did harvest the respectable eight point buck that my camera only got one picture of and the whole hunt was captured on video, too. I left the trail camera in place after deer season in hopes to find out what bucks survived.

Upon retrieval I discovered that a big doe had walked by minutes before a large coyote traveled down the same exact trail. The time stamp was 7:04 a.m.

I knew what I had to do.

Not a day after check-

ing my camera I was in ready position at seven on the dot hoping I didn’t alert any nearby coyotes. This was a deer-rich area, (mostly does and young bucks).

Knowing this I started the calling sequence using fawn distress on the “Western River’s Apache” e-caller. I started at low volume and played the e-caller ev-

always match the distress call to what the predators prey upon in your hunting areas.

It wasn’t five minutes after the second run of the chicken distress that, out of the blue, six deer came charging towards me and angled off to my right. I took this to mean that a coyote lurked close by

The author’s trail camera captured this coyote moving out with a deer leg in its toothy grip.

(Photo by Justin Merrill)

ery 30 to 60 seconds, then paused. I waited quietly for a couple minutes, watching my downwind side, then I played the fawn distress again at louder volume.

Once I reached full volume I played the fawn distress one last time. I remained still and quiet for at least fifteen minutes waiting patiently for a coyote.

After about twenty minutes I decided to play the chicken distress on the e-caller at high volume. I chose this distress call for the fact that several nearby residencies raise chickens and I occasionally hear the roosters off in the distance when turkey and deer hunting in this area. It’s key to

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and might be on its way. I quickly turned on my main video camera and steadied my rifle. I could hear faint “putter-patter” sounds of an animal walking briskly across the frozen snow. I wanted to be sure it wasn’t another deer so I never did adjust my video camera or shoulder my rifle, when I should have, and this cost me, “big time”!

The coyote stopped at forty yards right when I had my hand on my tripod turning the camera and it must have seen me move, since it veered off course to trot away. I managed to catch all the action on a video camera with one minor flaw - no fur went home with me after that hunt.

Justin is a member of the New England Outdoor Writers Association (NEOWA), the author of “Wild Maine Outdoors” and “The Sit Spot”. He may be contacted through his website WildMaineOutdoors.Com

Northwoods Sporting Journal

July 2021

For Meat or for Trophy

I was motivated to write this month’s column by one of the questions in the deer hunting survey in the May issue of Northwoods Sporting Journal.

It asked simply, “are you a meat hunter or a trophy hunter?” I would have to answer with a definite, meat hunter! How I got to

cational Center. Dot took a menial job in a nursing home. By this time we had three children, all in school.

One day Dot told me she didn’t want to work at that kind on job any more and she wanted to go back and finish her degree. I knew it would be a hard year on only one salary,

was ever turned off.

Anyway, this is where the meat hunter in me stepped up. I definitely was looking for meat, not a trophy. I should add that I never turned down a trophy if it came along. I have a couple of nice racks as evidence, but those antlers were not my reason for deer hunting, it was for the meat.

I never kidded myself that this was my only means of putting meat on the family’s table. I knew

Northwoods Voyager

by Gil Gilpatrick, Brunswick, ME

daunting undertaking for me as I didn’t have a clue about how to go about it. I read what I could and went at it with a sharp knife and a meat saw. I was never sure I put the correct name to the cuts of meat that came out of my efforts, but I ended up calling them steaks, roasts, stew meat and hamburg. It was all wrapped

Anyway, this is where the meat hunter in me stepped up. I definitely was looking for meat, not a trophy. I should add that I never turned down a trophy if it came along.

We were in it for the meat!

(Photo by V. Paul Reynolds)

that point is a story.

Dot and I married before she finished her four years at the University of Maine. So, when I finally got out of the military we returned to Maine and worked for a while in my family’s business, but eventually I went to teaching at the Skowhegan Vo-

but I agreed and so she reenrolled and went back to to the University. It was a tough time trying to pay the bills on one salary and I remember well the difficulty.

One month I recall that I had to choose between paying the electric bill or the telephone. I guess it all worked out because neither

NRA

treating mental health issues. Sure, we have a lot to talk about. Smearing millions of everyday, hardworking Americans, some of which are next door neighbors and coworkers, isn’t going to get anyone anywhere. More so, it is shameful.

As the former Democrat political operative, Clinton administration spokesman and ABC network pundit George Stephanopoulos once said, “Let me make one small vote for the NRA. They’re good

(Cont. from pg 16) homosexual and Puerto Rican heterosexual are all NRA. I am the NRA. So if folks really want to debate guns, let’s debate guns. Let’s debate facts.

Let’s talk about Gun Free School Zones and creating a safe space for violent attackers. Let’s talk about the complete failure of the FBI in following up on reported threats. Let’s talk about failures in diagnosing and

that if I spent the hours working a part time job after school or in the evenings I could earn enough money to buy far more meat than we would need.

But, I never even considered giving up hunting for a job bagging groceries or whatever.

Of course being short of money meant I couldn’t afford to have the meat processed by a professional, so I did it myself. It was a citizens. They call their congressmen. They write.

They vote. They contribute…”

Well said George. I should have just quoted you right up front.

John is a Registered Maine Guide, an NRA Certified Instructor and is the owner of Tucker Ridge Outdoors in Webster Plantation, Maine. He also works as an outdoors writer and can be reached at john@ tuckerridge.me or on Facebook @writerjohnfloyd

Page 43

and put into our freezer. I was satisfied with my result and we ate a lot of deer meat in those years. I might add that we also raised a large vegetable garden, but that’s a whole other story.

In a couple of years Dot was working as a Home Ec teacher and the money was not as tight.

As soon as I felt comfortable paying someone to do the meat cutting I did so

because this was the only part of deer hunting that I really didn’t like.

There is an interesting side note that I have never been able to understand. Of our three kids, who all were raised on deer meat, only one of them will willingly eat it today. Go figure!

Gil Gilpatrick is a Master Maine Guide, and is the first living recipient of the Legendary Maine Guide award. He is a life member of the Maine Professional Guides Association, a founding member of the Maine Wilderness Guides Organization, and served as a member of the Advisory Board for the Licensing of Guides from 1996 to 2010. He is a member of the New England Outdoor Writers Association and is the author of seven outdoorrelated books. Contact him at Gil@GilGilpatrick.com.

Page 44

Northwoods Sporting Journal

The Lowly Togue

Outdoors In Maine

icons at Branch Lake. The Carroll, Sr., and a Polish For 62 years, a behetwo I can recall were Guy guy, who was known sim- moth togue caught at Beech Hill Pond by Hollis Grindle of Ellsworth in 1958 held the state record. His fished weighed 31.8 lbs. Then, on July 2, last year Erik Poland of Andover singlehandedly boated a record breaker, a togue that tipped the official scales at 39.2 lbs! Poland was fishing in 94 feet of water at Lower Richardson Lake in Rangeley and was dragging 15 Hollis Grindle of Ellsworth with his Beech Hill colors of lead-core line Pond togue, a record for 62 years. when this record fish nailed

by V. Paul Reynolds, Ellsworth, ME In the lineup of Maine’s game-fish inventory, our togue (Lake Trout) is the black sheep of the family among salmonids.

In the frying pan, compared with a pan-fried brookie or a poached landlocked salmon, the togue is not memorable table fare. Togue

father, Harvey Reynolds, was a genuine, credentialed togue man. During the 1950s, when I was a kid, Dad and I slow-trolled for hours over the deephole at Branch Lake in Ellsworth, still a respectable togue lake. In those halcyon days you earned your Togue

Dad and I got on the board, but our fish and consequent standing paled alongside the true angling icons at Branch Lake. The two I can recall were Guy Carroll, Sr., and a Polish guy, who was known simply as “The Big O.” Frank Smart and Don Maddox were up there as well.

Man credentials by getting your name and fish on the coveted chalk board at the fabled Hanson’s Landing at Branch Lake. The bigger the togue and the more times you got on the board, the bigger your reputation and the taller you walked among your togue-chasing peers.

Dad and I got on the board, but our fish and consequent standing paled alongside the true angling

have remarkable longevity, some living up to 20 years.

This may explain why the big lunker togue tend to be oily and strong tasting.

Conversely, a young togue filleted and grilled can be pretty good, especially when served with an egg sauce and some fresh garden peas or fiddleheads.

The serious, die-hard togue fisherman, and there are still a few of us left, were a special breed. My late

Erik Poland of Andover with his new state record togue, a 39 pounder, caught July 2, 2020 at Lower Richardson Lake in Rangeley.

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Taken many years ago, the author and his late father, Harvard Reynolds, with a couple of County salmon.

ply as “The Big O.” Frank Smart and Don Maddox were up there as well.

These stalwarts routinely “chalked up” ten pounders plus; Dad and I tended to be proud of lakers in the 3-4 lb range. At Moosehead Lake, where Dad and I also togue fished, very large togue were a common occurrence. During the peak of my toguefishing days, Sebec Lake and Upper Jo Mary Lake also proved to be hot places for finding big togue.

his DB Smelt lure. Poland fought the fish for more than an hour and eventually was forced to land the played out fish with his bare hands.

Lake Trout or Togue are native Maine fish. (Salvelinus namaycush). In most waters, lake trout commonly reach lengths of 18 to 24 inches and weights of 2 to 4 pounds.

Lake trout have a typi(Togue cont. pg 45)

July 2021

Togue (Cont. from pg 44) cal trout-shaped body covered with creamy white spots on a background of bronze, dark brown, or green. Their coloration can resemble brook trout but lack the colorful red spots with blue halos of a brook trout. Another distinguishing feature of lake trout is a deeply forked tail as opposed to the square tail of the brook trout.

Lake trout are voracious and adaptable feeders, foraging on a wide variety of aquatic organisms.

In some lakes they are almost exclusively plankton feeders and in others they feed on a variety of prey from crayfish to smelts to white perch. Consequently, these prolific eaters can grow quite large.

What’s the best way to fish for these bottom dwellers?

Right after ice out, you may find togue near the shore or even cruising near the surface. But soon they head for the deepest holes in the lake looking for cold water.

From my experience there are two different ways to dredge for deepwater togue: 1) Colored lead core line on a big Sal-

Northwoods Sporting Journal Trout reel and a beefy rod 2) Downriggers.

Downriggers were never my thing. Too complicated. Lead core is the way to go, if you ask me.

Dad and I always used a little different lashups.

Dad attached about 30 feet of monofilament to a swivel between the mono and the lead core. On the terminal end Dad rotated between a sewn smelt and a double-jointed, small floating Rapala. His technique was to let out more lead core than he needed to get close to bottom. His theory was that the lead line would “belly” and drag in the mud, while the mono and Rapala would troll up above the bellied line and avoid bottom hookups. It worked most of the time.

For me, a conventional Togue Man lashup was called for. Following a chain swivel attached to the lead core was attached a big shiny Murray spoon and 6 or 7 feet of high testmonofilament. On the terminal end, a sewn live bait was always my preference.

Unless you want to get snagged up and lose your terminal tackle, there is no time for day dreaming with the Murray spoon lashup. Trolling dead slow, preferably on a windless day or early in the morn-

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ing, the trick was to carefully monitor the pulses of the throbbing spoon as it spun slowly just above the bottom, where the big ones hang out. For me, the pulsing rod and the sense of anticipation were always mesmerizing. If you could get the bait just off the bottom, and be in the right place in the deep hole at a slow troll, togue strikes were almost a certainty.

Managing the togue fishery in many Maine lakes has been a challenge for fisheries biologists, often with an excess of fish dampening togue growth.

This is a boon for togue anglers, who on some lakes

may keep as many small togue as they wish.

A final thought. During the dog days of August, when the brookies have disappeared into the spring holes and the bass and salmon would rather sulk than hit your line, consider giving togue a tumble.

With the right equipment, including a very slowtrolling outboard, and some patience, you can catch fish, even on the brightest, hottest days.

A smoker will transform about any togue, large or small, into a palatable dining experience. Togue may be the black sheep of the family, but fishing is

Page 45 fishing. They are a plentiful native Maine trout and, like they say, “if the Lord gives you lemons, make lemonade.”

The author is editor of the “Northwoods Sporting Journal” He is also a Maine guide and host of a weekly radio program — “Maine Outdoors” — heard Sundays at 7 p.m. on “The Voice of Maine News - Talk Network.” He has authored three books; online purchase information is available at www. maineoutdoorpublications. com. or www.sportingjournal.com. Contact email — vpaulr@tds.net

Carroll’s Corner My Final Thoughts To My Readers: The first tips column that I wrote for the folks at the Northwoods Sporting Journal was for the January issue in 2004! Quick arithmetic tells me that I am in my eighteenth year of writing these columns. Yikes!!!!! Where has the time gone? Eighteen years ago, I had hair that wasn’t grey!

I can remember the conversation that Vic Morin, Publisher for the NWJ and I had, way back when. He told me that I should write a column featuring outdoor tips. Being me and knowing nothing about writing a column, I said, “sure, why not?” I certainly need to thank Vic and equally so the Editor, V. Paul Reynolds for their patience. My thanks to Annette and the office staff for their help with my columns and again, lots of patience. One of the most enjoyable parts of this journey has been the many conversations with people at shows, on the phone and simply happenstance meetings. People have been very generous over these years. They provided suggestions and information that I could turn into tips that have made me look much wiser that I really am. The last thirty-five years have been a remarkable adventure for me. Starting in January of 1987 when we launched Fins and Furs Adventures, just like we knew what we were doing, there have been very few dull moments. Lila and I have travelled all over Robin Hood’s barn, on two continents, helping our customers to make memories that they can enjoy forever. We’ve helped thousands of people realize their dream of becoming a Maine Guide. For me personally, the culmination of all these years will be realized this coming September, when I become the first fly fisherman to be inducted into the Maine Sports Hall of Fame. Beyond being recognized with this honor, I have, after nearly fifty years of procrastination, completed my book which was scheduled to be in the Publishers hands by May of this year. Lastly, I was informed on May 16 that I am going to be the recipient of IF&W’s 2021 Legendary Maine Guide award.

I certainly owe a huge vote of thanks to my wife Lila, even though she frequently out shoots or out fishes me. Over and above being my hunting and fishing chum, business partner and day to day supervisor, she is typically recognized as the world’s most patient woman!

It has been an absolute honor for me to be associated with the Northwoods Sporting Journal. I am eternally grateful for the opportunity that they provided a loooong time ago!

With this said, this is my last column. My sincere thanks to the many people who made this possible.

I’ll see you on the trail, Carroll Carroll M. Ware is a Master Maine Guide, holder of forty-eight world fly-fishing records and a two-time Maine Professional fly-casting champion.

Page 46

Northwoods Sporting Journal

Women In The Woods

by Erin Merrill, Portland, ME July is the last month to catch your breath before hunting seasons begin. It is the time when we finish checking off items on our to-do list and get ready to head out into the woods in hopes of filling our tags.

I remember the hot, muggy days helping my friend Steve prepare barrel after barrel of bait, ready for the bear season. When we were able to start placing bait, we would lug buckets into the woods, battling deer flies the size of quarters with sweat soaking our clothes. Then, we would eagerly await the

first photos of bears showing up on the trail cameras.

Dad and I will check the Sky Condo, T3 and other stands to make sure there are no fallen limbs blocking our view. We will get our portable tree stands up and look for new travel lanes to put trail cameras on. We will buy a ridiculous amount of batteries and get all of our cameras ready and placed to see which bucks are back or new to the area. And I need to figure out a way to keep the mice out of the stands – because there is something unsettling when you can

The Tyer’s Corner

July 2021

Gearing Up for the Hunt

hear mice scurrying just inches from your back.

Staci and I will try to get in a few fishing trips before packing up the waders and getting out the hunting packs. We have

don’t have too many holes in them and are washed, scent free and ready for the season. I don’t think I have touched my wool hunting pants and jacket since I took them off at the end of

enough! What do you need to get done before the seasons kick off this fall?

Erin is a member of the OWAA and the New

July is also the last real chance to make sure your hunting clothes still fit (or buy new ones!), don’t have too many holes in them and are washed, scent free and ready for the season. been lucky to pick bluebird sky days to head into some remote areas of Maine and cast our lines. We will also make a few trips into the woods searching for mushrooms.

July is also the last real chance to make sure your hunting clothes still fit (or buy new ones!),

November. And it’s always that first week of hunting season, when I pack too much or not enough and forget where my neck warmers, extra gloves and hand warmers are.

So, I will take July to get things ready. Maybe I will even be planning for a moose hunt, if I am lucky

England Outdoor Writers Association. She is a senior writer for Drury Outdoors’ DeerCast and is the President and co-Founder of the non-profit group Women of the Maine Outdoors.

You can read about Erin’s adventures and contact her at www.andastrongcupofcoffee.com

The Sweet Heart

by Hugh Kelly, Detroit, ME

This month’s fly is a small streamer that I tied up to pull brook trout from the remote ponds in the Deboullie area. I wanted a small wounded baitfish imitation that would attract the very respectable trout cruising in Island Pond.

This is what I came up with and the pattern worked nicely. Try it on a sinking tip line and countdown to various depths before stripping it back.

Throat -- Sparse clump of orange hackle fibers Wing – Under wing of white calf tail, under two strips of mallard flank dyed red, under two peacock herl Eye – Jungle cock nail, tied short

I tied and used size 10 hooks that I also use for Maple Syrup nymphs.

I don’t know if the pattern would work well in larger sizes, I wanted a small streamer so size 10 Recipe for the Sweet worked for me. Tie in the Heart tail and double wrap the Thread – Red Hook – Size 10, 6x long copper Mylar. The throat is a match to the tail. Go very streamer hook Tail – Sparse clump of sparse on the calf tail and try to use the short, wispy orange hackle fibers hairs; you want the wing to Body – Copper Mylar

Sweet Heart (Photo by Hugh Kelly) be small and flexible. The red mallard flank is easy to find and barred markings help the bait fish look I wanted. Using peacock herl toppings on a streamer is a very old technique and nails down the baitfish feel on this fly; use the tips of the herl, not the butt. The red mallard and peacock herl should extend back as far as the end of the tail. I

use small eyes because they are available these days and they work. I used red thread to give a bloodied nose look and to trigger strikes. Substitutions: try copper wire for the body to add weight. You can try white marabou for the calf tail in the wing.

Hugh Kelly has fly fished and tied his own flies

for over 40 years. He and his family live in Detroit where he ties flies, drinks Moxie and plans fishing trips. He can be reached at hkellymaine@gmail.com and he writes a fly tying blog at puckerbrushflies. com

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July 2021

News

Northwoods Sporting Journal

mont’s 21 Wildlife Management Units.

(Cont. from pg 37) Landowners who post pond within a reasonable their land may not apply driving distance to chal- for a landowner priority lenge your skills.” muzzleloader antlerless For a list of trout deer permit. They are eliponds and fly-fishing-only gible to apply in the regular ponds in New Hampshire, lottery for an antlerless as well as a description of deer permit. special rules that apply to certain ponds, consult the New Hampshire Freshwater Fishing Digest, available online at www.fishnh. com/fishing/publications. html or from any Fish and Game agent where you buy your license.

“Yearling antler beam diameters, fawn weights and other physical condition measures are declining or are below optimal levels in many areas, indicating that deer have exceeded the level their habitat can support long-term,” said Nick Fortin, Fish and Wild-

Vermont Muzzleloader Season

Vermont’s muzzleloader season antlerless deer permit applications are now available online at Vermont Fish and Wildlife’s website and from license agents. A link to the information and online applications is on the home page.

The Fish and Wildlife Board met on May 19 and set antlerless deer permit numbers for the fall deer hunting seasons.

Hunting for antlerless deer will be allowed statewide during the archery season. One deer of either sex will be allowed during the October 23-24 youth and novice weekend hunt.

The muzzleloader seasons on October 28-31 and December 4-12 will have antlerless permits available for 19 of Ver-

4

life’s deer project leader.

“No population growth is expected in 2021, however, deer populations in 7 WMUs will be above their respective population objectives. The goal is to reduce deer populations in those areas while stabilizing populations in other

Page 47 areas.”

The deadline to apply for a muzzleloader antlerless deer permit is August 4.

For Immediate Release: May 20, 2021 Contacts: Nick Fortin 802-793-8777; Mark Scott, 802-777-4217

Page 48

New Hampshire Outdoors

Northwoods Sporting Journal

Keep Out: Identity Politics Special Unit M and Unit L Antlerless Deer Permits, July is your month. Typically, the Unit L permits are given via a lottery and the Unit M permits are available at the Hazen Drive, Concord location until the supply runs out. The Unit L Permit and tag are valid for an antlerless deer taken in Wildlife Management Unit (WMU) L only. You

: huntnh.com in early July.

I know it’s not just me, but I am sick of the self-righteous, self-serving, disingenuous politics that has intruded on the outdoor community. Lead ammo prohibition proposals, changes to the eligibility of Fish and Game Commissioner candidates, coyote hunting bills, a ban on recreational trapping and

by Peter St. James, Warner, N.H. Let me get a few permits for bear and deer housekeeping items out of on state-owned or statethe way before I get started. managed lands (including Hunters planning to federally managed lands) hunt over bait must file must be received by the for a permit from Fish and first Monday in August to Game, which requires a be accepted. Permits to bait landowner signature giving wildlife on State-owned or permission to place bait State-managed lands are on their property. Baiting At no time have those opposed to hunting, fishing applications may be printor trapping ever acknowledged the conservation ed online or picked up at contributions of the outdoor community. any Fish and Game office.

There is no charge for a bait issued on a first-come, first- can use the permit before on and on. And of course, or after filling any other each bill is presented as permit. Completed baiting served basis.

If you are baiting on deer tag you possess, such a solution to otherwise permits will not be acprivate property for bear, as archery or firearm; you dire consequences like the cepted at Regional Offices or by Local Conservation permit applications must may not take a second deer complete eradication of a Officers. All applications be postmarked by the first until the first deer is legally particular species or two. must be submitted to Head- Monday in August to be registered. An antlerless But many of us have been accepted. deer may be taken during around the political block quarters. the entire Unit L season enough times to know that If you’re looking for Requests for baiting with the permit. You can it’s usually just a solution use this permit during the in search of a problem. At archery, muzzleloader, or no time have those opposed firearms season by any to hunting, fishing or traplegal method. ping ever acknowledged Unit M Permits are the conservation contribu(Birds cont. pg ??) sold on a first come, first tions of the outdoor com•Tango Yankee LLC is the first exclusively internet auction company served basis, while supplies munity. Or, that the men in the country specializing in firearms, militaria and shooting sports last. Each permit comes and woman who take to the related items. with two deer tags; the cost field every day have more is $36, plus a transaction first-hand knowledge of • Fully licensed and insured, we commonly get our consignors more fee. There is not an option the species than many of money than live auction houses, dealers or private sales can and more often than not get greater than book value. of buying just one tag. For the opponents ever will. more information on get- They turn a blind eye to ting one of these highly the monies each state realsought after permits, go to izes through the PittmanFor Your Firearms and Related items

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Robertson and DingellJohnson excise taxes which are the result of purchases by hunters and fishermen.

And, whenever science or facts aren’t on their side, they’ll just dig out the old emotional blackmail angles which usually have nothing to do with the discussion.

If you don’t want to hunt, fish or trap…don’t. It’s really just that simple. But, to take away my ability to engage in those pursuits, because somehow it offends your moral compass is about as self-righteous and self-absorbed as you can get. As the comedian Ricky Gervais said at the Golden Globes award show, “Just because you’re offended, doesn’t mean you’re right”. Out in the woods, game identification is what we’re all about, not identity politics. It should stay that way, but I’m not holding my breath.

Peter St. James is a member of the New England Outdoor Writers Association, Outdoor Writers Association of America, is a licensed NH Fishing Guide and has a daily radio show on WNTK-99.7FM. Reach him at: stjames.peter@ gmail.com

The Sporting Journal's Circulation Manager's cat, Squeaker, very much enjoying being plugged into the April Issue.

Northwoods Sporting Journal

July 2021

Page 49

Maine Wardens Needed!

where in the country and give back to the resources and the people of the “Pine Tree State”.

Some may be asking why is there such a shortage of Wardens all of a sudden? There are several reasons that I see that explain this. First and foremost, the overall landscape and environment of law enforcement today is not one that is particularly bright and cheery. Riots and demonstrations have raged across every corner of our country over the last sevWith many Game Wardens eral years and retiring, the Maine Warden young men and Service needs applicants to women no lonfill these vacant posts. ger are choosing more positions set to open a career path in law enover the next several years forcement. Who can really as more and more War- blame them? I won’t get dens reach retirement age too deep on this topic as it and hang up the legend- is a deeply political talking ary red coat. If you have point unfortunately, with ever thought about being a many people on each side Game Warden, now could of the party line on this isvery well be your time to sue. What it boils down to pursue your dream, work however, is no one hates for one of the finest law bad cops more than good enforcement agencies any- cops and trust, integrity and

The Maine Warden Service is hiring. And when I say hiring, I don’t mean we are looking to fill one or two positions. Currently, over a dozen openings are looking to be filled with

respect needs to return to the American law enforcement officer.

Other issues facing the Maine Warden Service are that 25 years ago, the Warden Service faced similar challenges with many openings within the Department. However, they had thousands of applicants applying for these positions and hired large “classes” of Wardens who have now put in there 25 years and are eligible to retire. In 2021 however, we are having trouble finding a hundred applicants during

Warden’s Words

by Game Warden Kale O’Leary, Ashland, ME hired before finally making the cut. There is a saying that nothing worthwhile in life comes easy, and that is true about becoming a Maine Game Warden. A Warden completes nearly 50 weeks of training prior to becoming a Warden on his or her own. This is more training than any other law enforcement agency in the State. The Maine Warden Service has always prided

warding, demanding, challenging and fulfilling then I could have ever imagined.

A great annual salary with room for advancement, retirement, benefits package, and more are just some of the “perks” of the job. The one thing that I view as an incredible part of the job is working everyday in the Maine outdoors to protect the wildlife while being provided every piece

With openings in virtually every corner of the State of Maine, I encourage anyone who has ever thought of pursuing this career to reach out to your local Warden, inquire about meeting to have a coffee or even ride along for a day to learn more about the job.

each hiring cycle!

With openings in virtually every corner of the State of Maine, I encourage anyone who has ever thought of pursuing this career to reach out to your local Warden, inquire about meeting to have a coffee or even ride along for a day to learn more about the job.

It is not easy to be hired, and unfortunately this discourages many quality people. Many active and past Wardens have tried multiple times to get

SUBSCRIBE TODAY! Northwoods Sporting Journal

itself on hiring the best candidates and will sacrifice having openings in the field, because having the finest group of Wardens possible is always the number one goal.

The Maine Warden Service is rich in history and tradition and I feel strongly that Wardens working in the field today strive to uphold those values and traditions. I have found this career to be more than a job, it is a lifestyle that is more re-

New Subscriber

Renewal

of equipment I need to be as effective as possible at achieving that mission.

Check out the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife website for more information regarding the Warden Service along with information about reaching out to a Warden recruiter in your area.

Kale O’Leary is a Maine Game Warden that lives in the Ashland area.

He covers the Masardis/ Oxbow District.

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Northwoods Sporting Journal

Vermont Ramblings

by Dennis Jensen, Vermont This gem of a little book found its way to the author by pure luck. My wife’s cousin, an avid reader, sent a pile of books to my place. Only one was for me but it turned out to be a

Moby Dick is often difficult to follow, due to old English usage, but is a staggering tale of the whale industry in the 19th Century and the quest for the savage white whale.

Anyway, I took the slim volume into my hands and went to reading. Right from the start, as with all good books, I was, well, hooked. classic in fishing literature.

Like a lot of folks, I suspect, I did a great deal of reading during the pandemic, including Twain (“Roughing It”), Hemingway (“The Nick Adams Stories”) and a re-reading of Melville (“Moby Dick”).

Anyway, I took the slim volume into my hands and went to reading. Right from the start, as with all good books, I was, well, hooked. It is dated, for sure, having been published in 1945, but, like good bourbon, the years made it all

To Hell With Fishing

the better.

With a wonderful forward by the legendary Corey Ford, this 88-page relic devotes page after page of copy on one side and the old-time drawings of H.T. Webster, a cartoon artist who knew more than a little about the trials of fishing and the ongoing, heated debates between anglers and their often lefthome-alone wives.

The book has an interesting format. On one side of the page it will deliver a short tale, offerings such charming beauties like, “Why dumb people catch more trout that smart people” and “The truth about Izaak Walton.” (He writes: “If you think this book is dull, go curl up with the Compleat Angler … then

To Hell with Fishing” is a 1945 book, written

by Ed Zern and featuring the humorous cartoons of H.T. Webster. A copy can be obtained on-line. The short, 88-page book is a rare treat. try to uncurl.”

Webster was a longtime cartoonist for the once-great New York Herald Tribune. The book goes really heavy with Web-

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ster’s cartoons later but this does nothing to disrupt what is a sometimes-corny but very compelling book about fishing or rather, the self-inflicted damage often incurred when we go to the waters.

Here’s a good example of the writing, a real funny quote from Zern’s book: “Gollup Kuhn once forsook his homestead on the banks of the Delaware and went to visit a distant relative in the city. I asked him what he thought of city ways. “Durn Little!” Gollup allowed, with fastidious indignation. “I never seen such unsanitary people. Why, they even got the privy right inside the house!”

Here are some more classic quotes from Zern’s book: “Fishermen are born honest, but they get over it.”; “Personally, I am opposed to having fish mounted. This may be because I’ve never caught one large enough to justify such exhibitionism.”; “A recent survey showed that roughly two-thirds of all fishermen never eat fish. This should (Fishing cont. pg 67)

July 2021

Northwoods Sporting Journal

Shooting Party Features Shotguns From the 1800s

The guns were beautiful examples of the craftsmanship of the 1800s and they were used in competition not simply displayed at a museum.

Edwardian period attire was the dress of the day worn by both men and women. One could easily imagine they were watching a shoot in 18th Century England.

The Northeast Kingdom Skeet & Sporting Clays Club, www.nekclays.com, in Burke has held the shoot two years in a row and Linda and I greatly enjoyed both events. The shoot is an opportunity for the public and lovers of fine double guns to watch the various events and learn about the firearms.

The participants are very willing to talk about their niche shooting sport and explain the lineage of their double shotguns many of which bore fancy engravings. Repeatedly, I was handed very valuable guns to admire as the owners proudly talked about them.

Events include driven clays where targets are launched from six traps on a hill in front of the shooters. Two shooting butts are arranged on a line about 20 yards apart and score keepers are assigned.

Single shooters with their loaders, switch butts after 25 birds. Two-man teams also compete. The paired gun event showcases the skill of shooter and loader with two guns. A long bird event, gives shooters a chance to test their skills against very challeng-

Page 51

Outdoors In Vermont

by Gary W. Moore, Bradford, VT

ing targets thrown from a tower.

The events are hosted by the Northeast Chapter of The Vintage Gunners, https://vintagers.org.

1914).”

F&W App Gives Important Information Any Time Last fall the Fish and Wildlife Department devel-

The participants are very willing to talk about their niche shooting sport and explain the lineage of their double shotguns many of which bore fancy engravings.

Competitors dressed in period attire holding their antique double shotguns.

L-R Bill Fleischer, Jack Dudley, Raymond Poudrier, Dave Leibe

Their website lists the organization’s philosophy as, “A shooting experience for Gentlemen and Gentlewomen who appreciate the guns, attire and habits of the Vintage Years (1880-

oped a new mobile application to help people recreate outdoors in a safe and socially distanced manner.

The app, Vermont Outdoors, connects the public (1800's cont. pg 53)

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Page 52

Green Mountain Report

Northwoods Sporting Journal

The Champlain Islands

by Bradley Carleton, Charlotte, VT When I was working at LL Bean in Burlington running the Outdoor Discovery School, I met a lot of well-established fishermen, whose names show up in the media from time to time. Some of them were professional fishing guides.

Others were manufacturer

July 2021

humor and gentile manner.

Have you ever seen images in paintings of the grizzled old Grampa teaching the youngster how to fish? The ever-patient wise old fisherman doling out his secrets to the young one who is more interested in catching fish than

Lake Champlain Islands.

Barry may have started out as a flyfishing trout purist, but when I saw how he adapted to the new generation of fishermen who want to catch every species under the sun on a flyrod, I knew Barry could imbue culture to even the least sophisticated mountain man in our state. He has a way of speaking that you just want to sit and listen.

And Mason has matured

And there is a reason that these celebrity fisherman fish the Islands so hard – because the volume of smallies and largemouths are mind-blowing to those professionals who have claimed that Lake Champlain is one of, if not the best, all-round bass fishery in the US. Another stalwart Is-

houses during the winter.

There is no “off-season” for Lance and his lovely bride, Katie, who own Champney Farms in South Hero. Lance is still an accomplished hunter, but he spends a lot of his time raising beef cattle, pigs, ducks, and chickens. In the fall, he goes full-bore, butchering deer for local hunters. I

The volume of smallies and largemouths are mind-blowing to those professionals who have claimed that Lake Champlain is one of, if not the best, all-round bass fishery in the US.

reps and most of them were learning the Latin names dedicated Trout Unlimited of the imitation flies on lifers. But one guy stood the end of an old bamboo out to me as not just an rod. You know the picture. accomplished fisherman, Well, my friend Barry has but a true gentleman with a grandson, Mason, who enough cultural heritage he has taken under his to have rubbed shoulders wing for several years now with some music royalty. and nurtured his curiosHe lives in the Islands here ity to develop him into a in Vermont and I dubbed young piscatorial wizard. him “Lord Barrymore” to They have spent countkindly elevate his status less hours on the dock and beyond his humble ego. from shore spinning yarns He was always just a joy and unlocking the secrets to be around. Oh, he has of Micropterus dolomieu, stories to tell but he shares the smallmouth bass, and them with a select group of Micropterus salmoides, friends who appreciate his the largemouth bass of the Greg and the team at Vermont Field Sports say that the Trout & Landlock Salmon is in full swing. Bass Season opens June 12.

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into a bright, intelligent, and respectable young man – likely because Barry wasn’t just teaching him how to fish. He was teaching him how to live.

If you’ve ever followed the Bassmaster or FLW tours that hit Lake Champlain every summer you’ll be sure to notice that most of these professional bass fishermen hit the Islands hard, boating 50100 fish in a day. Keeping only the largest fish for the weigh-ins, they are radar focused on the shorelines of the Islands. They’re quite easy to spot with their brightly colored super-fast custom boats with more stickers on them than a kindergartner at a craft fair.

Barry and Mason tying flies.

(Photo by Bradley Carleton)

land personality that I’ve become acquainted with in the last few years is a gentleman named Lance Champney. I watched Lance mature from a “Whack ‘Em & Stack ‘Em” waterfowler into a true conservationist and sought-after butcher.

He founded the Vermont chapter of Delta Waterfowl and built a strong following of waterfowl conservationists, building and installing dozens of wood duck

have called him during “the season” and he is working non-stop seven days a week. Lance and Katie also have gardens and pickle anything that can fit in a jar – chicken and duck eggs, quail eggs, and yes lots of cucumbers! They are regulars at the Farmers Market on weekends.

Just don’t try to follow this guy around looking for his best waterfowling spots, (Islands cont. pg 53)

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Northwoods Sporting Journal

July 2021

Letters

(Cont. ftom pg 21) Getting It Right To the Editor: I just finished reading your article on doe permits: “Getting It Right.” l read the part about inflating the number of permits to get the results the Department is looking for. It said that they issued 4 permits to get the results they want but today 10 or more. I think one of the problems is that the permits don’t go to the right person or persons that want them and would use them.

They should look into the past to see who used their permits and bonus permits. For example, I haven’t received or drawn a bonus permit since the 1980s. I thought that during that time after getting one, I would have certainly received another. I still put in for a permit every year.

I saw that some hunters received more then one bonus permit because they hunt the right zone. I think that everyone should get a bonus permit before giving other hunters more then one. I have seen land that

is posted by permission only but if you ask you will never get permission.

You talked about going back to the basics giving hunters one zone instead of multiple zones.

I think that you should give hunters more choices because the places that you used to hunt are going away. So that permits aren’t wasted. Hunters have to find different places to hunt and that is why they need more choices.

I remember I was driving on a road on the coast and looked for posted signs. On that road there were only a few places that were posted. I go on the idea if it isn’t posted, it is posted. I believe that a lot of land is unhuntable. You can’t or will never get the chance to hunt it. The only way you get the chance is by bow and arrow.

Many stores have stopped tagging deer for one reason or other. So early data may not be accurate because hunters from one zone have to go to another zone to get it tagged.

Richard Maddox Warren (Letter cont. pg 66)

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Islands

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(Cont. from pg 52) because he’s experienced enough to know that you only show the most trusted family members and a few close friends the honey holes he’s stashed away in his maps. If you live in the Islands, you need to stop in and check out Champney Farms or wander on over to their Facebook page.

(Cont. from pg 51)

Bradley Carleton is the founder and Executive Director of www.sacredhunter.org which teaches the public respect and empathy through hunting and fishing.

with department lands, fish and wildlife regulations as well as up-to-date COVID guidance. I have it on my iPhone and find it very useful, especially with the new features.

Recent additions to the app include a variety of maps that allow you to obtain locations and driving directions to Fish and Wildlife Department points of interest, including boat ramps and fishing locations, big game reporting stations, fish stocking locations, and shooting ranges.

Page 53

App users can now submit reports to the Department as well. These include nuisance black bear reports, master angler submissions and suspected fish and wildlife violations with Operation Game Thief.

The app can be downloaded at the Apple App Store for iPhones or Google Play for Android phones.

Syndicated columnist Gary W. Moore is a life long resident of Vermont and a former Commissioner of Fish and Game.

He may be reached by email at gwmoore1946@ icloud.com or at Box 454, Bradford, VT 05033.

Page 54

Northwoods Sporting Journal

The Trail Rider

by Rod Fraser, Hyde Park, MA When I was a kid growing up in Maine, I spent the majority of my time outside. I spent countless hours fishing, hiking, hunting and camping out in

warmest on record. Cold winters kill off large numbers of ticks but warmer winters allow more to survive until spring. Combine that with the rainfall and

The data from the Center for Disease Control (CDC), shows that all of the New England states and the Eastern states down to Virginia are areas of high incidence for Lyme disease. the woods of Maine. I was never bitten by a tick, nor do I remember anyone in my family being bitten by a tick. My, how times have changed!

You may have seen the reports in your local news that we are already seeing an increase in the number of ticks and tick bites in New England. This past winter was exceptionally warm, one of the

temperatures we have experienced and ticks are bountiful this spring.

The data from the Center for Disease Control (CDC), shows that all of the New England states and the Eastern states down to Virginia are areas of high incidence for Lyme disease. According to a news report from the Associated Press, the busy spring for ticks has been

sending more people to the emergency room in Maine.

Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported 176 tick-related emergency department visits for the week that ended May 16. Last year, there were 91 tick-related ER visits in the same week.

I have had Lyme disease and it is not fun. I didn’t know I had been bitten by a tick because it was so small and on the back of my arm, I did not see it.

Thankfully, as soon as I got sick with symptoms, my doctor quickly tested for Lyme disease. I was treated and was back to normal in just a few days. Many people have gone weeks or months without being properly diagnosed resulting in more severe cases than I experienced. There are a lot of Lyme Disease horror stories out there.

For those of us who read the Northwoods sporting Journal, we are avid

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Ticks!

July 2021

outdoors people. But even those of us who do not venture deep into the forest are still at risk. I picked up the tick that gave me Lyme disease in my backyard.

Recently, while fishing a

mental Protection Agencyregistered insect repellent.

I also spray my clothes and shoes with Permethrin to repel ticks which I have found to work exceptionally well. I learned that trick when working on a project in a heavy tick area.

Once you get out of the woods, do a quick clothing check to see if you In Maine and the rest of have any New England tick-related cases on your are way up this spring. clothes beriver, a hiker came out of fore you get into your vehithe woods with his dog into cle. You don’t want to take the parking lot that I had those bad guys home with parked in. I watched him as you. Once home, check he removed multiple ticks your entire body for ticks from his clothing and also and take a shower immefrom his dog. diately. Hot showers within As my grandmother 2 hours of a tick climbing used to say, an ounce of aboard have been shown to prevention is worth a pound significantly reduce the risk of cure. If you’re heading of Lyme disease. Promptly outdoors, particularly to remove any attached ticks wooded or grassy areas, you find without squeezwear long pants, socks, and ing them, using fine-tipped shoes and use an Environ- tweezers to grasp the tick as close to the skin’s surface as you can. Put all your clothes in a hot dryer for 20 minutes to kill the ticks. If you are unsure how to safely remove a tick, you can find everything GAUDETTE’S you will need to know by a quick internet search.

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July 2021

Northwoods Sporting Journal

Page 55

Water in the Wilds

Water is your next survival need. Most people can go two or three weeks with no food, but only two to three days with no water.

Water is heavy and takes

any packaging carefully to be sure you are getting what you need.

Boiling is another easy way to purify water.

Start by filtering any cloudy

drop 1 pill in a quart of water and wait 30 minutes.

Each brand is a little different so be sure to follow the directions that come with the treatment. Be careful to not contaminate the container you will be drinking from with dirty water. If you are using a water bottle or canteen as your container; fill it and treat the water, then loosen the cap and splash some clean water onto the threads and lid so no dirty water remains. If you are

Basics Of Survival

by Joe Frazier, Bangor, ME as well.

You can use either a cotton rope, or a piece of t shirt twisted into a rope to clean water. Put one end in dirty water and the other end into the clean container slightly lower than the dirty water container. Water will wick down into the clean container. The water will

can angle one corner and place a container under it to catch rainwater. In the early morning, you can tie rags or even your shirt around your ankles and walk through wet grass to collect dew, then wring the water into your container.

Try to drink before you start feeling thirsty.

be clean but NOT decontaminated. This also works if there is water in a crack in a rock or boulder.

If you need to carry water and you don’t have a big enough container you can make one. Tie the bottom of a t-shirt closed with a piece of rope. Put a trash bag inside the t-shirt and fill it with up to six gallons of water. Tie the top of the bag and you can carry it by the sleeves.

Try to avoid collecting water in stagnant pools or puddles. Water that is running, like a stream, is your best option. If you use a plastic sheet for the top of your shelter, you

Once you get dehydrated it is much harder to think and take care of yourself.

If you are short on water, drink what you have and then try to find more.

Drinking untreated water can cause nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.

Only drink it if you have no other options, but risking sickness is better than dying of dehydration.

NEVER drink sea water. The salt can destroy your kidneys.

Boiling is another easy way to purify water. Start by filtering any cloudy or dirty water through some cloth like a t-shirt. Then bring the water to a rolling boil for one minute, let cool before drinking.

Five gallons of water carried in a trash bag inside a t-shirt. (Photo by Joe Frazier) up a lot of space, so most people only carry a minimum when they are hiking or in the woods. When you are in the woods, assume all water is contaminated.

Clear, clean, running water is NOT safe to drink.

However, if you have no other options, you should drink and risk getting sick rather than die of dehydration. Here are some more preferable options.

The easiest is a straw type water filter. I like the “Lifestraw” and “Lifestraw mini”. They are totally self contained and will filter 1,000 gallons of water.

They only weigh a couple ounces and cost about $20.

You simply put the end in any water and drink. Follow the directions on the package. There are small water pumps that filter water that are available, as well as filters that go inside bottles. Most filters that are for home use will filter water for taste, but they do not filter biological contaminants. Be sure to read

or dirty water through some cloth like a t-shirt. Then bring the water to a rolling boil for one minute, let cool before drinking. Any survival kit should have a metal container you can boil water in. The pot can be as simple as a soup can, just something to boil in.

You can boil water in tin foil, plastic bottles or bags, or even paper bags; but a metal container is best and easiest.

Chemical treatment is another option. Most treatments are iodine based and in pill form. You simply

putting together a survival kit and you do not have much room, 2 quart size zip top freezer bags work fine.

Use 1 bag to scoop up the untreated water, then carefully pour the water into the clean bag. You should measure the volume of the bag at home and mark it at 1 quart so you know you have the right amount.

When you are choosing containers to carry water, choose something with more than one purpose.

A single walled, stainless steel bottle is best because you can boil water in it. A military style canteen that sits inside a metal cup, with a cloth pouch works great

Joe is a husband, father, marine, and writer. Joefrazier193@gmail. com

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Northwoods Sporting Journal

Wanderlust

Northwoods Sketchbook

by Mark McCollough, Hampden, ME We have had enough!

The recent Covid-19 pandemic first kept us isolated indoors, then socially distanced, and restricted to the confines of our town and state. Illness, loss of friends and relatives, quarantines, masks, teleworking, and debates about vaccines have brought out the best and sometimes the worse in

soon followed. Someday, scientist will find a lingering Neolithic gene for wanderlust lurking in our DNA. Although some are satisfied with the view from their front porch rocking chair, others revel in planning trips, seeing new sights, meeting new and different people, and experiencing new cultures.

Tarzan, Daktari, Wild Kingdom, and other television shows that flickered on our black-and-white television about the mysterious and unexplored regions of the Africa and the Amazon.

Portions of Antarctica and the Canadian arctic were still unmapped. People still existed that used only stone-aged technologies.

By the end of the decade, Apollo astronauts gave us a view of the Earth as it really is, a tiny blue speck of

the modern wonders are impressive creations of humans, but I prefer to pursue the wonders of nature on our continent that are accessible to many of us – the migrations of caribou across the Canadian arctic, the aurora borealis crackling on a crisp winter night, the grandeur of the

July 2021

as a travel writer for Field and Stream, then graduated to world-wide exploration and adventures in the 1930s and 1940s. He circumnavigated the globe in an openseated biplane and crossed the Alps in Hannibal’s footsteps on an elephant.

Eventually, his travel stories turned into books

Although some are satisfied with the view from their front porch rocking chair, others revel in planning trips, seeing new sights, meeting new and different people, and experiencing new cultures. our flawed human species.

It also illuminated how much we desire to leave this condition behind and take to the hiking trails, the rivers, or the highways and see new country. There is adventure calling from beyond the horizon.

Homo sapiens have an incessant need to see what is beyond the horizon.

Wanderlust has been an incurable itch since modern humans evolved in east Africa about 160,000 years ago. It took us just a few thousand years to discover and colonize Eurasia, and Australia and the Americas

We take journeys hoping to leave something behind, the doldrums of a gray winter, boredom, a lifechanging illness, or to cast off the shackles imposed by a pandemic. Traveling gives us a new perspective on the world. We learn about new customs, see new mountain ranges, feel the rushing current of new rivers, observe exotic flora and fauna, and climb to new vistas.

When I was young in the 1960s, the world was still a vast place with many undiscovered mysteries.

We were mesmerized by

an oasis in a vast universe.

We have been talking about The Seven Wonders of the World since the Greek Heroditus first wrote about them 400 years before Christ. Teachers seemed to think it was important for us to memorize them in school. Heroditus’ original list was a travel itinerary to the eastern Mediterranean that included the Colossus of Rhodes and Pyramids of Ghiza. Maybe this became a “bucket list” for some.

The list has morphed, and our modern world now contains too many “Wonders” to count. For many

Canadian Rockies, and the and columns for the Boston ice fields of Alaska. Each Globe. Haliburton’s last of us should author our hurrah in 1939 was to fulfill own Seven Wonders of the a life-long dream to cross World. the Pacific in a Chinese As a boy, I read and junk to San Fransisco. Midre-read a tattered copy of way across the Pacific the Richard Haliburton’s Com- ship encountered a typhoon plete Book of Marvels. As and was never heard from a young man, Haliburton again. Haliburton’s legacy launched a career of travel as a world adventurer was journalism. He cut his teeth (Wonderlust cont. pg 67)

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Northwoods Sporting Journal

VMC Finesse Tokyo Rig

For many years, American bass anglers have been in awe over the uniquely designed angling rigs, samurai super sharp hooks and handcrafted precision of lifelike hardbaits, all developed by Japanese bass anglers. Just a few years ago the heavy metal, bottom bouncing,

the ability to present their baits in a wide variety of high percentage areas. Be it flipping thick vegetation, dragging the bottom on rocky tapering flats or pitching to docks the VMC Tokyo Rig offers a unique presentation with a smooth weedless entrance to pressured bass.

the weight of your choice.

(Note: weights and baits are not included!)

Anglers will need a pair of needle-nose pliers to secure the weights on the stainless-steel dropper wire. Simply slide your weights unto the dropper wire and then bend the wire upward to secure the weights. Round needlenose pliers will assist in bending the wire to a small

Best Bassin’

by Bill Decoteau, Hampden, MA hook design!

According to Professional Bass Angler and Rapala Pro-staffer Mike ‘Ike’ Iaconelli the VMC Neko hook’s standout features include; Adjustable fluorocarbon keeper for versatile rigging, 3-degree offset point to increase hooking

Just a few years ago the heavy metal, bottom bouncing, dragging Japanese Tokyo Rig worked its way into bass angling Americana, just as the drop-shot rig did previously.

dragging Japanese Tokyo Rig worked its way into bass angling Americana, just as the drop-shot rig did previously.

The drop shot and Tokyo rig have many similar rigging components in addition to their presentation of your baits. Each rigging technique presents your bait off the bottom as the weight is attached at the end of the rig. Anglers also have the choice of adding lighter weights for slower fall rates or shallow water conditions, as well as utilizing heavier weights when conditions call for deeper depths or faster fall rates. (www.Rapala/VMC/ Hooks/Bass.com) VMC Hooks was one of the first companies to manufacture a complete line of their VMC Tokyo Rig after the introduction of the Japanese Tokyo Rig. The compactness of the VMC Tokyo Rigs allows anglers a multitude of technique options with

Here are the basic components of a VMC Tokyo Rig: One-piece ring is the heart of the VMC Tokyo Rig where the 3-components are attached.

VMC hook, sized to the technique being used, a rolling swivel for your line and to aid in line twist, and lastly a 2.5-inch stainless drop-wire for attaching

neat circle.

The overwhelming success of VMC’s three Tokyo Rig models encouraged VMC to develop a Tokyo Rig with the same basic bass attracting concepts...However, this time with the ability to utilize small finesse baits! Turning to their very popular VMC Neko hook every aspect for finesse presentations were already incorporated within the VMC Neko

Page 57

percentage, wide gap, long shank for a variety of bait lengths, plus a smooth epoxy resin which closes the hook eye to prevent line from slipping through.

VMC Tokyo Rig Finesse Neko: One-piece solid ring connected to a premium-rolling swivel allows the bait to move freely above the dropper arm with a natural flowing and undulating action. Stainlesssteel 2.5” dropper arm

for customized rigging, allows sliding on your favorite weight(s) and/or bead combinations onto the wire. Bending the end of the wire upward with a pair of needle-nose pliers will secure the weight (s) in place. The Neko hook is available in 2/0, 1/0, 1 and 2 sizes. (2 Rigs per package) VMC Tokyo Rig: Designed with a heavy-duty wide gap 3-degree offset hook (2/0, 3/0, 4/0, or 5/0) attached to a one-piece ring with a drop wire and rolling swivel for line attachment. The drop-wire allows anglers to slide the weight of their choice unto the drop wire and then bend the wire upwards to secure the weight. (2 Rigs per package.)

VMC Tokyo HeavyDuty Flippin Hook: Designed specifically for flipping heavy cover a VMC Mike Iaconelli ‘Ike’ ap(Rig cont. pg 59)

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Northwoods Sporting Journal

Page 58

The Singing Maine Guide

by Randy Spencer, Grand Lake Stream, ME A fishing client recently confessed to me that he was a “gear slut.”

He went on to say that this condition was incurable, that it had challenged his marriage, compromised his solvency, and that it had

piece of gear for use in our beloved sport, and we are smitten. Seduced.

We have to have it. And to get it, we’ll stall on paying something already overdue, move other needs down the list of pressing

Gear Addiction

pass up.

Sometimes, I run across a piece of fishing equipment that stands apart so impressively, I know within minutes that I’m going to have to have it.

Maybe it’s because of German or Swedish engineer-

since become so well-received and so popular, that an offshoot was inevitable.

That offshoot was Range Reels, my newest and most exciting discovery.

It wasn’t just because I liked its looks and feel.

When I put it on my favor-

Sometimes, I run across a piece of fishing equipment that stands apart so impressively, I know within minutes that I’m going to have to have it.

Maybe it’s because of German or Swedish engineering, but in this case, it was American. many of the same markers as almost any addiction. As I probed what the signs and symptoms of this condition might be, or early warning signs, I learned to my shock and dismay that I might have it too. Not only that, but that a high percentage of my sports do too.

It was all tongue-incheek of course, but it means, in a nutshell, that we discover some new

priorities, and go get it.

Because, well, we have to have it.

Some of us may be more vulnerable than others because of our exposure to cutting-edge gear that we know would make our sporting life just that much more interesting, or fun, or productive. It could be a rod, a lure, an ice fishing trap prototype that you’re just not going to be able to

The Range Reel. ing, but in this case, it was ite rod I found the cost of American. Two lifelong the reel more than justififishing buddies who had able. So, I decided to go been roommates in college about this field test differand chose different career ently. Since I’m a working paths (one became a cop guide and see different and one an Army Ranger) sports with different skill decided to found a fly rod levels all season long, I decompany. Walton fly rods cided to put this 5/6 weight (https://www.waltonrods. Range Reel on different com/range-reels) have rods and test it on different

July 2021

sports.

First up was a Riffle series, T-89, Montana trout rod, 9 1/2’ for 5 wt.

I purchased RIO’s new smallmouth bass line since that’s what we were after that day and handed it over to a very capable fly fishing sport. He gave it a once over, checking out the deep-grooved spool allowing for more backing and better reeling ratio. As it came set up for left hand retrieve and he preferred right, I switched it over in one simple move that took all of 30 seconds. He paid out some line, then reeled it up. “Superb manufacturing,” he said.

If your trip includes different modes of fishing, you can keep spare spools with different lines and switch them out in an instant. The first fish, a hefty smallmouth, gave the sport the chance to adjust the drag, and that’s what convinced him. Easy, obvious, and able to be fine tuned on the fly to any fish. “Nice!” said the sport of few words.

Next up was a lady with an L.L. Bean Double (Gear cont. pg 68)

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Swallows (Cont. from pg 38)

the nest sites of other species of swallows in Cooper.

Vertically high dirt banks along roadsides and in quarries are riddled with holes. Bank Swallows created these nest holes by digging with their bills and pushing dirt behind them with their feet. They are highly sociable and these nest hole sites form colonies. Bank Swallows have brown backs and white breasts with a brown band across the top. The Northern Rough-winged swallow also uses dirt banks.

But it is more solitary and nests only as isolated pairs.

It too is brown above and white below, but is larger than Bank Swallows.

I have as yet not found any Purple Martins in my area. People have set up elaborate multi roomed Martin houses on tall poles.

But they do not seem to have Martin tenants. I bought some hollow white gourds and hung them as the Indians did. These were supposedly attractive to Martins too as nests sites. But only hornets and wasps used them. When late summer happens, you will start seeing swallows lining up on electric wires between poles. They will leave their perches to forage for insects. This helps them prepare and build up body fat necessary for migration. The only species of swallow that winters in the southern United States is the Tree Sparrow. All others go further down to Mexico, Central and South America and in the Caribbean. So when I see the large flocks of swallows gathering, I know that summer will soon be over.

Swallows are truly birds of

Northwoods Sporting Journal

summer.

Karen Holmes is a freelance writer living in Cooper, Maine. She enjoys gardening and walking in her woodlands there.

Hunting and fishing are also enjoyable pastimes with her husband Ken. She continues to coordinate the Washington County, Maine Annual Loon Count and volunteers to do programs and surveys for various organizations in Down East Maine.

Rig

(Cont. from pg 57) proved heavy-duty Flipping Hook with doublespike bait keeper will hold your plastic bait firmly providing solid hook-ups.

Plus, a 2.5-inch stainless steel dropper wire will hold the weight of your choice once the dropper wire is bent upwards. Available with 3/0, 4/0, or 5/0 Flipping Hooks, there are two VMC Tokyo Rigs per package.

Page 59

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Page 60

Northwoods Sporting Journal

“Just Fishing”

by Bob Leeman, Bangor, ME While in a private conflab with Lee Wulff, many moons ago, we discussed the future of fishing.

Lee Wulff, the originator of the famous Wulff pattern fishing flies and widely acclaimed salmon fly fisherman, was in town and this afforded us the opportunity

an expensive proposition of temporary put and take fishing that could very well ruin what we have left of good native trout fishing by cross breeding them into short-living weaklings too.

Besides, who the blazes wants to match-the-hatch for fish that would grab

July 2021

Wisdom from the Masters

begun on a minute basis in a few states. I’m talking length limits of 16, 18, yes, even 20 inches and more.”

“Why do you think the anglers have so much of a desire to fish the private waters that make up less than 1% of the available fishing waters? Because they know that the fish are there, that they’re big, and that because for the most part, they’re being released, they’ll be there

Years of experience rode heavily on his furrowed brows as he continued. “No, stocking fish is not the answer and should have occurred to “them” by now… for the fireside chat.

We talked of salmon flies and extravagant angling first, and then the subject just naturally got around to what the angler could expect to catch if the existence of pollution, people, and stocked, shortliving trout continues.

“Raising and stocking hatchery trout is not the answer,” said Lee, “and is

a liver pellet if thrown at him.”

Years of experience rode heavily on his furrowed brows as he continued. “No, stocking fish is not the answer and should have occurred to “them” by now…”

“Stream management and controlled length limits is what it’ll have to be someday, and has already

tomorrow to fight again.”

What he said, I thought, made a lot of sense. Is it the answer to the future of good fishing?

Lee Wulff said so.

Baseball great, Ted Williams once had common sense advice on fish and fishermen one day while overlooking the lower pools of the Penobscot River and a rotating stream of fly casters hurling imitation, newly dressed fish attractors from sturdy flyrods along the tidal shores of Veazie and Eddington, Maine. (Time: Late 1970s) Te d s e e m e d i m pressed with the activity as he observed from a high ledge perch over the goings-on with friend,

The famous home- run hitter Ted Williams.

Bud Leavitt, the writer, and me. “Well”, he offered, “first off, the best Atlantic salmon “lays” would appear to be on the far shore from here. The anglers all seem to be casting too far out to reach the other shore.

Why don’t they just go over there to fish?!” It would seem to me to make more sense to cover the water close to you, then work

your fly, with care, farther out, first.”

I thought at the time, it made a lot of sense. Wise words of advice, I never forgot…

Bob Leeman is a Master Maine Guide, outdoor writer, naturalist, book author, and a co-host of the MAINE OUTDOORS radio program on Sunday evenings from 7-8 p.m. His three books are all available, in soft cover only, at several bookstores and fly shops, or directly from him.

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Sasquatch (Cont. from pg 24) loud.

His big hands were shaking and boy was he proud, As he lit the small pile and the flickering flames gave A light and a warmth throughout most of the cave.

He looked pretty pleased but I showed him some more.

Like how birch bark and saplings could make a good door.

Then we sat by the fire and we both looked around.

Seemed our friendship was growing by leaps and by bounds.

Then I thought how my friend, here up high on this hill, Should have his own name so I settled on Phil.

I said it and said it, which he no doubt thought queer, ‘Till he knew it meant him and he got the idea.

Old Phil and I looked at each other right then And we both knew we had in each other a friend.

So we sat by the fire, staring into the coals, ‘Till we both nodded off and we started to doze.

When I looked at my watch it was 6:44 And sunlight streamed down through the new birch bark door.

I looked to my left and glanced to my right, But my big new-found friend was nowhere in sight.

I reached for the door to take a look ‘round outside When it creaked and it snapped and it flew open wide!

I jumped back a bit, staring into the sun, And there stood Phil with my hat and my gun.

He’d gotten up early to do this good deed

Northwoods Sporting Journal And he seemed mighty happy, quite happy indeed!

I gave him a hug as he stood by the door And he hugged me right back, letting out with a roar.

We grinned at each other and hopped up and down.

And, locking our arms, we danced ‘round and ‘round.

We were both pretty pleased and we both let it show As we slapped and we pushed back and forth in the snow.

Well this all seemed quite good and we hung out all day.

But I knew before long I’d be making my way, Out of Phil’s wood and away from his home, Back to the lake and a place of my own.

So I spent ‘bout an hour trying to make this point clear.

And when he knew that it meant that I couldn’t stay here, He hugged me quite hard and looked up at the skies.

As the big tears welled up in his old worn out eyes.

So I gave him two lighters and tried to convey That they should only be used when there came such a day That he needed to see me and I should come by To visit his cave up there in the sky.

So I gathered my stuff, headed out through the woods.

I was moving quite fast, ‘bout as fast as I could, When I stopped and looked back and there was old Phil Coming right down there towards me, down over the hill.

I looked for a minute then held up my hand And I told him to stay there, just stay there and stand.

He watched for awhile, then making no sound, He turned and he walked off with shoulders bent

July 2021 down.

His big heart was broken but he knew I must go.

And he looked pretty sad as he trudged through the snow.

I watched and I thought, “Don’t worry old friend.

It won’t be too long and I’ll be back again.”

Down the mountain I went I went, hell-bent for the camp.

Made it just before dark, went in, lit the lamp And I sat there just thinking, “My God, was this true?

Did you just meet a Big-foot? Did this happen to you?”

So time pasted on slowly, maybe three weeks or more, And rising one day, I stepped out through the door.

It was six in the morning. There wasn’t a sound And I, with my coffee, stood looking around.

I was thinking of Phil and how he must be And scolding myself for not going to see!

So I scampered inside, packed a few things and then, I hiked up Spruce Mountain to see my old friend.

So we visit each year, maybe eight times or so, Could be ninety degrees or twenty below.

We really don’t care, we just have a great ball, And that’s all that matters to us after all.

So he’s still up there now living wild living free.

For a fella like him that’s the way it should be.

But I wouldn’t suggest you go up there to see, ‘Cause you just might not be quite so lucky as me!

Robert Spearin lives in Bradford. This is his second published poem in the Northwoods Sporting Journal.

Northwoods Sporting Journal Available to All Active Duty Military Personnel Worldwide!

E CTIV A O Y ET FRE ILITAR M

In these troubled and divisive times for our country, we at the Northwoods Sporting Journal remain proud to be Americans. We still stand for the National Anthem and thank our lucky stars that we live in the land of the free.

And we still salute our military men and women, who have served and continue to serve their country, here at home and in faraway lands. To them we owe our gratitude and appreciation for what they do, and for safeguarding our American way of life, which we value deeply.

As a way of saying thank you, we make the digital versions of the Northwoods Sporting Journal past and current - available online to service people around the world. If you have a loved one or friend now serving on active duty in Iraq or Afghanistan, or anywhere else, please let them know that they have free access to our digital magazines at: www.sportingjournal.com

July 2021

Northwoods Sporting Journal

Summer Game Changer

As Summer begins, there are techniques that you can apply to your wild game that will help you enjoy it in a unique way.

These methods impart flavor and moisture and can be utilized for summer recipes.

One method that I personally enjoy during the

brine – a dry brining technique calls for 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt per pound of meat, plus whatever other (dried) herbs and spices you so choose. Pummel everything into a sandy texture with a mortar and pestle, then rub it onto your meaty canvas.

You can also use a

You can obviously take the guesswork out of it by using WildCheff’s Farmhouse or Smokehouse Brine; both are available to purchase online @ WildCheff.com A few general brining safety tips: To avoid bad bacteria,

By coating your meat in a salty mixture, it both re-distributes moisture and pulls the seasoning deep into the meat. That concentrated liquid brine, combined with the meat’s natural juices, is what makes this a dry process of brining. warm months is brining.

Brining brings a whole new experience to the path you can take with your outdoor proteins.

What many may be unaware of is that there are two primary methods for brining; there is the wet method, that most people are familiar with, and there is also a dry-brining method. This is what I would like to share with you.

Dry brining differs from the traditional wet brine method. The word “brining” implies a liquid, and dry brining could be more accurately categorized as a rub, or a “cure,” for your meat.

By coating your meat in a salty mixture, it both re-distributes moisture and pulls the seasoning deep into the meat. That concentrated liquid brine, combined with the meat’s natural juices, is what makes this a dry process of brining.

The dissolved brine changes the structure of the muscle proteins, allowing the meat to absorb and retain moisture. It is an effective method to use with game meat due to its lean nature.

To make a homemade

pinch or two of sugar to your dry brine which helsp the meat caramelize as it cooks.

Only put enough of the brining mixture to season it like you normally would season your meat; this ensures that you do not over-salt the protein.

always brine in the fridge.

For the same reason, make sure none of your meat is exposed to the air.

Always let your meat come to room temperature before cooking.

I recommend a wild game steak that is at least one inch thick. Season the

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game with brine on both sides. Lay it on a rack above a foil-lined tray, and place into your fridge.

Depending on how many items are in your fridge usually determines if you also loosely cover with plastic wrap or not.

That’s it. That is the whole procedure. Now you have to wait and leave it like this for 1-3 days. If you are an impatient person as most are, give it time, as you will discover that the 2-3 day method yields the best result (although you will still get benefits from leaving it for a day).

As far as the condition of the fridge goes, you’re going to want to make sure there’s nothing with a strong odor left uncovered in the fridge which could work its way into the meat.

Think of stinky leftovers that are not in a tightly sealed container etc. You can put an open box of baking soda somewhere in your fridge.

It is extremely important to not leave the meat brining for more than three days – as there comes a point where you begin (Changer cont. pg 66)

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Northwoods Sporting Journal

Page 64

Against The Current

by Bob Romano, Rangeley, ME For the third time in as many minutes the trout rose under the shadow cast by the low-hanging branches of a maple tree. The subtle disturbance could easily be mistaken for a minnow

Trout that have survived a season of anglers, not to mention mergansers, herons, snakes, and otters, fin in the gin-clear current like specters through a graveyard, mocking any attempt

Taking my time, I now cross the wide pool a few hundred yards below the maple tree. I take even longer to wade upstream, crouching twenty feet below the phantom riser that continues to devour insects only inches from the far bank. or pumpkinseed, maybe a nymph breaking the surface to emerge into an adult mayfly. No loud splash, not even the usual concentric circles, only the briefest of dimples to betray the fish’s presence.

As August progresses, the water on this slowmoving run has become as thin as my aging hairline.

to prove their existence. All the while they grow large on the stream’s abundant insect life as evidenced by this fish, which continues to feed where I lost a trout the previous afternoon.

After rising through the surface that fish grabbed my fly, but when the knot between a 7x tippet and the end of my leader failed to

Double Header

hold, it broke me off.

Taking my time, I now cross the wide pool a few hundred yards below the maple tree. I take even longer to wade upstream, crouching twenty feet below the phantom riser that continues to devour insects only inches from the far bank.

For a moment the fish stays down, or perhaps it’s a trick of the shadows, but then the telltale disturbance returns, almost imperceptibly, as if I can feel the rise rather than see it.

Having replaced the tippet that snapped off the previous afternoon, I look through my fly box and decide upon a fly with a dun-colored wing and a body spun from beaver fur dyed dark olive. It’s a pattern similar to the one that fooled the fish the previous day. The tiny

imitation of a late-season blue-winged olive mayfly is no bigger than the letter o typed on this page. The wing is wrapped around the tiniest of white posts that is barely visible from

The double header.

(Photo by Trish Romano)

this distance. Tied in what is called a parachute style, it provides a low profile against the water’s surface.

With a long leader and fine tippet, my cast brings the pattern a foot or so above the trout’s feeding lane. I wait for the fish to connect, my muscles tense, eyes focused, but the dimple appears only after

July 2021

the olive fly has passed by.

Sometimes casting to a selective trout can be like pitching to a batter.

Like going inside to get the hitter’s attention and then throwing heat down the middle on the next pitch. When a fish fails to respond to your offering, a standard fly-fishing maxim is to go a size smaller, and after a few more casts I do just that.

But the fish digs in its fins, continuing to feed as the damn dimple mocks my efforts to prevail.

Looking closely, I spot a few olives on the water. Their wings lie flush with the surface. I tie on a pattern meant to imitate a spent mayfly, one that has died after mating. The wings of this pattern mimic those of the insects floating under the maple tree.

(Header cont. pg 66)

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July 2021

Northwoods Sporting Journal

Re-canvassing a canoe,

Page 65

Kineo Currents

Part II

Last month I wrote about whether or not to re-canvas a wooden canoe myself or have someone else do it. The original

than later.

I’ve been reading about making and repairing canoes in Jerry Stelmok and Rollin Thurlow’s clas-

by Suzanne AuClair, Rockwood, ME

that, they say that the actual construction is reverse that of a birch bark canoe a canoe with wood, upbecause the wood-canvas side down on a form, was starts with the use of a solid not a method early Maine woodsmen and guides used. By 1900 though, a number of men were experimenting with it in the Bangor to Old Town area, creating their own forms,

about bringing a 20-foot Templeton back to Maine to have as a centerpiece at the Moosehead Historical Society, where I work.

It would be bringing the Templeton back home. If we can swing it, we will.

It’s beautifully crafted, and

If you like to have some knowledge about how the wood and canvas canoe came to be, this book makes great nighttime reading. The history is as good as the how-to’s.

patch job on this 15-footer was with duct tape and paint. It worked! The canvas had pulled away from some sections of the gunwale, so this was supposed to be a quick fix just for a season, but that was some years ago, and not even duct tape lasts forever.

Eventually, the tape turned brittle and the canvas curled away from the frame. I would like to set it up in the garage and experiment with it myself.

But I’ve just about decided to call on someone to help.

It’s a practical matter. I work full time, am strapped for time and, unless I learn from someone who knows what they’re doing, this re-canvassing job could turn into a labor of love — that lasts a million years (or so). I want this canoe to be water-ready, sooner

sic “The Wood & Canvas Canoe - A Complete Guide to its History, Construction, Restoration, and Maintenance.” If you like to have some knowledge about how the wood and canvas canoe came to be, this book makes great nighttime reading. The history is as good as the how-tos.

It seems the first Maine wood-canvas canoes began in the 1870s in Bangor and were modeled on the local Penobscot Indian birchbark canoes.

Stelmok and Rollin say that the construction was similar, in that “there were wide, thin flexible ribs and planking covered with strong waterproof covering, independent of the wooden hull with strong rails and thwarts to help maintain the canoe’s shape and strength.” Other than

form, affixing the ribs and planking first, and the outside covering last, which they note is opposite to the Native method.

The idea of building

and going into business for themselves. I wonder how long it was before the idea took hold among the backwoods guides, who likely didn’t have the money to build or buy one of these, and lived quite a distance from the city.

Here at Moosehead, by mid-century there were a number of craftsmen building by wood-canvas. Templeton canoes became quite sought after.

Recently, I was contacted

Greenville

itself seen some good use.

Suzanne AuClair lives near Rockwood. She has been writing about the Moosehead Lake region for 26 years and produced “The Origins, Formation & History of Maine’s Inland Fisheries Division.”

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Page 66

Changer (Cont. from pg 63) flirting too closely with food safety issues, such as bacteria.

The aromatics that can be combined with the salt for your brine include things like crushed juniper, rosemary, garlic powder and other flavors that would pair well with your game steak.

Try this method with your moose, bear, deer, or waterfowl like geese and ducks. Grill your brined game and enjoy as a steak, fajitas, or to top a summer salad. You will experience moisture and flavor in a whole new way!

Smokehouse Brined Game Steaks Ingredients 4 - 8 oz. Game Steaks, fat and sinew removed WildCheff Smokehouse Brine Directions Place steaks into a glass baking dish and sea-

Northwoods Sporting Journal son each with brine, making sure to season both sides. (Remember not to over-season with the brine). Cover dish with plastic wrap. Place in the refrigerator, for 24 hours.

Alternatively, you can season with brine and place them into a gallon freezer zip lock.

After brining is complete, remove steaks from the refrigerator and fire up your gas grill to 400° F. If using a charcoal grill, set it up for medium-high heat.

Create a chimichurri by chopping garlic, parsley, scallions, red bell & serrano peppers. Drizzle with olive oil and set aside.

Coat steaks lightly with olive oil, and then place steaks on grill, placing directly on grill grate, over the flame.

Sear 4 minutes per side for medium-rare, turning a quarter way after 2 minutes, flip and repeat.

Remove filets from grill and let rest for 5 minutes.

Place steaks on plates

and thinly slice each filet.

Top steaks with chimichurri and drizzle with more olive oil if desired.

Serve immediately.

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Header

(Cont. from pg 64) Predictably, the fish ignores it. Fly fishing, like baseball, is not as easy as it might appear.

No worries. I switch to a pattern known as an emerger. Same insect, different stage, a fly created to simulate an aquatic insect as it “emerges” through the surface. It’s a pitch that is

tough for a batter to lay off, even a trout as selective as the late Thurman Munson.

The fish follows. I watch it rise, but then it falls back, letting my offer drift down with the current.

If your best pitch fails to work, use it to set up the next one. Having run the count full, the challenge is to find the right fly before the multiple casts put the fish down, the equivalent of walking the batter.

I snip off the emerger and tie on a terrestrial. Not a small one, but an imitation of a big, fat, black ant, about as different from the tiny olive imitations as anything you might find on the water this time of year.

Think of it as my version of an Eephus pitch.

With one chance to get it right, I wade a few steps closer. Shuffling slowly, I hope to avoid disturbing the stream bottom that might alert the trout to my presence. The ant drifts down the middle of the plate until the dimple surrounds its greased hackles.

July 2021 A momentary suspension in time is broken when the fish erupts through the surface, sunlight glistening off nickel-size pumpkin spots.

It’s only later, while removing the black ant from the corner of the big brown’s jaw that I discover the second fly, a #20, bluewinged olive, with a length of 7x tippet still knotted to the eye of the hook.

Letters (Cont. from pg 53)

Down the Rathole?

To the Editor: Suzanne AuClair’s “Glad to Keep Kennebec Dams” (NSJ, May 2021) was needed and true. The Atlantic salmon fiasco of removing dams, throwing money down a rathole for Atlantic salmon, and hampering sustainable wildlife populations must end. There must be an approved Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) before a dam is removed.

Why spend time on Atlantic salmon when they will be on the endangered species list for 75 years. They are below the threshold of recovery and the chances for a major upswing in their population is slim.

It certainly seems that pro-Atlantic salmon activities may be destroying critical wildlife habitat (e.g., above dams) needed for black ducks, loons, shore birds, song birds, and aquatic mammals.

This scenario is true in the reconstruction of the Machias dike where it appears that Atlantic salmon are more important than people. Let us hope that Suzanne stays on top of this dam situation.

Fred Hartman Machiasport

Northwoods Sporting Journal

July 2021

Fishing

(Cont. from pg 50) surprise nobody. Fish is brain food. People who eat fish have large, welldeveloped brains. People with large, well-developed brains don’t fish. It’s that simple.” “Fly fishermen spend hours tying little clumps of fur and feathers on hooks, trying to make a trout fly that looks like a real fly. But nobody has ever seen a natural insect trying to mate with a Fanwing Ginger Quill.”

If you love fishing, any kind of fishing, get a copy of this book. It is a classic, in the true sense of the word.

Dennis Jensen is the outdoor editor of the Rutland Herald and Barre Times Argus and a freelance writer. Contact him at d.jensen62@yahoo.com

Wanderlust (Cont. from pg 56) sealed just like Amelia Earhart, Sir John Franklin lost in his Northwest Passage, and George Mallory buried in the snowfields of Everest. Wanderlust

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is not without risk, and many infatuated explorer and adventurer have lost their lives chasing a dream.

Maybe that is why some prefer the rocking chair…

Travel refreshes our psyche – replacing the humdrum of home with an infusion of new vistas and ideas. Wanderlust is an incurable itch under the skin, a void that needs filled, an urge for adventure, fulfilling a dream to visit a part of the Earth that captures our imaginations. Wanderlust is a thirst for new experiences. It may be slaked by fishing for brown trout in New Zealand or catching brook trout in a hard-toreach pond in the wilds of northern Maine.

Thoreau wrote, “I want to live deep and suck out the marrow of life.”

You have been cooped up for too long. Wherever your desire, start planning now for the Grand Tour or a trip of a lifetime. You earned it!

Mark McCollough is planning his next trip from his home in Hampden, Maine. He can be contacted at markmccollough25@ gmail.com

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Page 67

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Northwoods Sporting Journal

Page 68

Gear

(Cont. from pg 58) L, 9’ for 5 wt. For this I put on a RIO Trout, weightforward line two weights up from the rod weight, or a 7 wt. line. This sport was wowed by the perfor-

mance of the Range Reel set up this way. The line fired through the guides like greased lightening, and she was tangle-free all day long. She suddenly felt as if she was a much better fly caster than she previously thought.

Finally, I had to try the Range Reel on my prize. “The Pelham” bamboo fly rod is now a collector’s item, so I chose the person to use it carefully. It was made by the Amherst Fishing Rod Company from 1947-1953. At 8 1/2

July 2021

feet, it is a medium/slow action rod that telescopes the slightest strike into the arm of the fly caster. The Range Reel on this rod was a meeting of modern, precision technology, and oldworld aesthetics. I forgot about the fish. I just wanted

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(Gear cont. pg 69)

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July 2021

Gear

Northwoods Sporting Journal

waltonrods.com/rangereels). And by the way, there are worse conditions (Cont. from pg 68) That’s pretty much every- to have than being incurthing we’re looking for ably addicted to great gear. from a fly reel. Range Reels Randy Spencer is a deliver all of these. Find them here: (https://www.

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Page 69

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Northwoods Sporting Journal

Page 70 SELLERS LANE

July 2021 SELLERS LANE

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First Choice Real Estate Land, Cabins, Acreage, Waterfront and more.

FOR SALE

Convenience store, gas station, hot and cold food, and sundries.

DID YOU KNOW THAT YOU CAN INSTANTLY ACCESS CURRENT AND PAST DIGITAL ISSUES OF THE NORTHWOODS SPORTING JOURNAL? IT'S TRUE. SIMPLY GOOGLE:http://www.sportingjournal.com/digital-issues.

P.O. Box 628 Main Street Machias, ME 04654

www.HearthAndHomeRealty.com

4376 Madison: 2 BR, 2 bath mobile home on Main Street.

Residential or commercial use.

2 areas with water/sewer hookups. Great business location with high visibility. Set up another mobile to have two rentals or just utilize all the space for yourself. $80,000.

8430 Madison ; Lovely open field for farming, residential or commercial venture. Prime lot with excellent exposure on Main Road. All high and dry prime farmland. Not your average lot and with 6.5 surveyed acres, dreams can be made here. $119,900.

at roadside. $24,900.

8429 Norridgewock: Nice and nearly level 7.67 acre property for your home or camp.

838' of road frontage for additional privacy.

Power and telephone

4368 North Anson; 4 BR, 2.5 bath home with indoor pool, sauna, workshop, billiard room, screen house perfect for entertaining. Large back yard abuts the Kennebec Valley Trail System. Separate hook-up for mobile or RV at side of home. 2.7 acres. $420,000.

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CALL Our Past. Your Future

P.O. Box 72 Houlton, Maine 1-800-341-1566 www.wardcedarloghomes.com

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Owners retiring call 207-462-2623

(207) 696-4247 274 Main Street Madison, ME 04950

R M COUNTRY STORE an

www.mainelandbroker.com

•In the resort town of Eagle Lake, ME •Right on snowmobile and ATV trails •Tourist destination year round •All equipment upgraded •Turn key operation •Highly profitable

SUNRISE REALTY

Office Tel. & Fax: (207) 255-3039 Email: anitaj@midmaine.com Website: www.sunlist.com Anita Johnson

BERRY TWP: This beautiful two room log cabin sitting on leased land with frontage on Round Lake in Berry Lake. Camp is off Balsam Knoll road off the 29 road.

Round Lake is a good fishing lake. If you want to have a good boat ride take the stream out of Round Lake into Rocky Lake also you might fish along the way and catch your supper. The log cabin has a screened in porch to sit on and enjoy the view. What a super spot to enjoy the summer and also fall. Great price at only $70,000.

WHITING: what a great opportunity to have your own piece of MAINE LAKE FRONTAGE on a nice clean lake. Indian Lake is known for good fishing and just to enjoy taking a boat ride.

This 2 a lot is in a small sub-division so there are some convenants to help protect your investment.

What a great place to spend your summer fishing and swimming and great price. $70,000.

www.sportingjournal.com

Overhead Door Company of Bangor

“The original since 1921”

Residential Sales, Service Parts for Residential, Commercial, Industrial 24-Hour Emergency Repair Reliability and so much more

Commercial

1-800-696-2235 56 Liberty Drive, Hermon www.overheaddoorofbangor.com

Judd Goodwin Well Co

"We Do It Right The First Time"

Complete Well & Pump

Installation, Service and Repair Residential • Commercial Camps • Cottages

P.O. Box 17 Greenville, ME 04441 Office: 207-695-3645 Cell: 207-280-0923 goodwinjudd@yahoo.com www.juddgoodwinwell.com Member Maine Groundwater Association

HYDRA OIL 5 GAL $32.99

Plus many more hydraulic oils, gear oils, and transmission fluids at great pricing!!

$149.99